Modern Family
by likecominghome
Summary: Stiles Stilinski, drummer in globally successful band True Alpha, is thrust into parenthood after learning he has a daughter with a woman with whom he had a fling. With the help of his three best friends, he conquers the ups and downs of raising a child while touring the world.
1. Chapter 1

His mornings had always been loud. Despite being an only child, his father had never had a problem with yelling at him at any hour. Being on tour with his best friends was much the same, only the shouting was to tell him they were running late to that morning's slew of interviews.

Nowadays, his mornings consisted of an entirely different sort of ruckus.

It began like clockwork at seven am. First the door would creak open and then he'd feel the bed dip under the weight of a new body. Next, light pushes against back and shoulders, which, when met with no reaction, transitioned into jumping and high pitched chanting.

"Daddy, daddy, wake up! It's Saturday!"

Groaning, Stiles squeezed his eyes shut briefly before allowing them to flutter open and adjust to the daylight and the outline of his four year old daughter standing with her feet planted on either side of his hips.

"It's Saturday!" Savannah Stilinski repeated, bouncing on the bed and causing her brown curly ponytail to do the same. "You know what that means?!"

There was no possible for him not to know what it meant. Savannah had been gushing about her ballet recital since the moment it was announced three months ago. Her excitement had rubbed off on Stiles and he and the boys had spent many a night watching her rehearse her parts over and over.

"It's dance day!" He widened his eyes and puffed out his cheeks because he knew it always made her laugh. This time was no exception. Her tinkling giggle filled the air and automatically caused him grin because Stiles couldn't possibly be unhappy while Savannah was smiling.

"Hey, Savi," Stiles lowered his voice, his eyes sparking with mischief as his hands came to rest on her ankles. "Wanna go wake your Uncle Derek?"

Grinning, she nodded rapidly, dropping to her knees and swinging her legs to the side so she could jump off the bed, reaching out to grab her father's arm and tug him out as well.

Stiles laughed as he threw back the covers, allowing his daughter to pull him down the hall where his band mate was sleeping.

Sometimes Stiles still couldn't believe this was his life. When he was seventeen and True Alpha was doing their first international headline tour, he never would have imagined that at twenty-five, he'd have someone as amazing as Savannah. Sure, he'd always wanted kids eventually, but he assumed it would be later in life when he'd had time to figure everything out and get his shit together. So when he met up with a girl he'd had a fling with in London a year earlier and she told him she'd had a baby, he was more than shocked. And when she told him that she wanted him to take full custody, he was speechless. Over the course of five minutes, he'd gone from being excited that he could finally legally drink in the United States to being a father and that shift was terrifying.

But he couldn't say no. He'd taken one look at Savannah and his heart had melted.

The first few months were rough, but he owed a lot of his sanity to his band mates. They'd rallied around him when he told them the news, and the four of them had moved into a house together in Beacon Hills, where they all adjusted to being father figures. Stiles called on his father for help whenever he was desperate, but as he looked back, he couldn't help but think that those long nights of trying to get Savannah to eat or sleep and the days spent figuring out how to change diapers had made him into a better man.

When Savannah was a baby, he'd taken her on tour because although raising a child in the midst of his touring and recording schedule was hectic and crazy, he couldn't bear to leave her behind. Besides, he always had the other boys around to help and there was no one he trusted more than the band mates he considered brothers. As she got older, the boys had agreed to space out their albums and tours so she could have some semblance of stability and they spent six months of the year at home, which is how she ended up taking ballet classes.

The moms at the dance studio used to give him strange looks when he'd drop her off or pick her up, most likely wondering why it seemed a little girl was being raised by a bunch of men, and sometimes Stiles wondered if Savannah was affected by the fact that she was growing up without a mother. She didn't know her mother at all and Stiles would have told her the truth if she asked, but she never did.

So he broached the subject himself and found that she could apparently care less.

"Why do I need a mommy?" she'd shrugged, wrapped in a white feather boa because she took her tea parties very seriously, as she poured him water in a plastic tea cup. "I have four daddies."

They came to a stop outside Derek's bedroom door, which Savannah had kindly decorated with sparkly fairy princess stickers from her collection. Dropping her father's hand, she reached up and stood on her tip toes to turn the doorknob. Stiles pushed open the door and over her shoulder, Savannah pressed a small finger to her lips, urging him to be silent. Nodding, he followed her on his tip toes into the room, pressing his lips together to keep from laughing when she launched herself onto Derek's bed and began to jump up and down, much like she had done for Stiles.

"Wake up, Uncle Derek! It's a big day!"

Derek let out a loud groan that sent Savannah into a fit of giggles as she collapsed on top of him and began tickling his side. In his attempt to keep from laughing, he ended letting out a series of high pitched squeaks and a few moments later, Stiles heard running from down the hallway and Scott and Isaac appeared at the door, their brows furrowed in confusion.

"I thought someone was dying," Isaac yawned, leaning one shoulder against the door frame.

"Nah," Stiles chuckled, crossing his arms over his chest and watching as Derek finally contained Savannah by looping an arm around her waist and pulling her against his chest, where he proceeded to make faces at her, sending her into yet another fit of giggles. "Savi wanted to wake Derek up."

"So pretty much the same thing," Isaac laughed.

"Good morning, Savi-licious," Scott called out, mimicking Isaac's leaning position on the other side of the door frame.

Craning her neck, Savannah grinned and waved at her uncles in the doorway. "Uncle Scott! Uncle Isaac! Guess what day it is?"

"In case you can't tell, she's excited about the recital," Stiles smirked, looking back at his friends.

"So are we," Derek grumbled, sitting up in his bed and pulling Savannah into his side on top of the covers. "We're gonna be in the front row, cheering for you."

"There's no cheering in ballet, Uncle Derek," she pouted, crunching her eyebrows together and glaring to the best of her ability.

"Says who?" Derek replied, mirroring her expression. "I'll cheer if I want to."

"I think you guys can work this out later," Stiles laughed, running a hand through the hair that seemed to be perpetually stuck in an upwards formation. "Savi, sweetie, can you go brush your teeth? You're gonna need a big breakfast if you're gonna rock it on that stage tonight."

Nodding, she smacked a kiss to Derek's stubble layered cheek before hopping off the bed and scurrying past her father and uncles towards the bathroom down the hall. Laughing, the boys grinned at each other before scattering to perform their morning rituals.

Scott brushed his teeth beside Savannah in the bathroom, making sure she rinsed out her mouth and toothbrush properly. Derek sat on the floor of the hallway and talked to her through the door as she took a bath, because she insisted that she was old enough to do it herself, and told her knock knock jokes to make her giggle splash about in the water, every now and then reminding her to scrub behind her ears because she always seemed to forget. Once she was squeaky clean, Isaac would help her pick out her clothes, today opting for a set of purple overalls and a white t-shirt since she would have to change out of them later anyway. In the kitchen, Stiles got to work setting out the various cereal and fruit options for breakfast.

They liked having a routine. Savannah's life was complex enough as it was what with her not having a mother. Throw in the fact that she was being raised by four men who spent half their life traveling the world and it was past chaotic. So when they were home, they settled into a routine in an attempt to give her some illusion of normalcy.

She skipped into the kitchen with Isaac on her heels just as Stiles had set out her favorite blue plastic bowl and Mickey Mouse spoon. Hoisting herself into her chair, she swung her legs and smiled sweetly up at Scott, who had just made himself a cup of coffee, requesting the same breakfast as every morning. "Cheerios, please."

"Sometimes it's scary how much you are Stiles's kid," Scott muttered, reaching over to her selected cereal box and pouring the circular breakfast food into her bowl before turning to the fridge to retrieve the milk.

The five of them sat around the kitchen table, participating in quiet conversations and listening to Savannah verbally rehearse her recital moves. After breakfast, they took turns taking showers before Isaac and Scott went to do some grocery shopping and Derek worked out some guitar riffs in the basement while Stiles drummed out beats on a practice pad as Savannah sat on the floor and played with her dolls, chiming in every now and then when she liked a particular set of chords or a particular rhythm.

Isaac and Scott returned with supplies and lunch in the form of sandwiches and their little family ate another meal together before it was time for Savannah to begin getting ready for her recital.

Stiles had been dreading this part for the past three months. He had no doubts that Savannah was going to own that stage, but he had no idea how to do her makeup. After Savannah came home in tears because she was scolded for not having her hair in a ballerina bun, the boys had spent three hours watching online videos, trying to perfect their topknots by practicing on a very impatient Savannah and were now pretty adept at the practice. But makeup was a different story.

"Which one of these goes where?" Scott asked, his thick brow furrowed in confusion as he stared at the array of compacts spread out across the kitchen table in varying shades of blue and pink because as they'd heard Savannah repeat for the past two weeks, she was to have 'blue eyes, pink cheeks, and pink lips'.

Stiles and Isaac had gone to the drug store earlier that week on their quest for the makeup and had felt so bad for confusing the hell out of the store worker because they had no idea what they were looking for that they ended up buying three different kinds of everything. If there was ever some sort of crisis in which mass amounts of makeup were needed to save the day, they might just turn out to be heroes.

"Well, blue eyes, right?" Isaac piped up, picking up one of the compacts with light blue eye shadow. "So that's easy."

Savannah squeezed her eyes shut, sitting perfectly still at the head of the kitchen table as she waited for her makeover to begin.

"Darling, can you relax just a little bit?" Stiles laughed as Isaac opened the compact and pulled out the tiny brush inside. She breathed in deeply, her cheeks sinking and allowing her eyelids to become more accessible. "Good girl. Now stay still."

She did as she was told and Isaac nervously poked his tongue between his lips as he painted the powder over her eyelids. After adding two more layers, he told her to open to see the effect and nodded in satisfaction. He wasn't sure the shadow was supposed to go all the way up to her eyebrows, but he figured it would make it easier to see her from the stage and that was a good thing.

Next, it was Scott's turn to brush the pink powder in the other container over her cheeks as she hollowed them out by making a fish face, once again possibly adding just a bit too much. Stiles did the honor of tracing the bright pink lipstick over her mouth and when he was done, they stood back and surveyed their work.

She didn't look terrible. A little bit like a miniature clown, but not terrible.

"Do you wanna see?" Stiles asked warily, unsure of what her reaction would be. The last thing he wanted was for this most exciting evening to begin on a bad note because her father and uncles were completely hopeless when it came to applying makeup.

Nodding, she slipped out of her chair and padded towards the bathroom, being trailed by all four members of True Alpha. Stepping up onto the plastic stool she used to see into the mirror because she wasn't tall enough to do it on her own, she turned her face from side to side as she inspected the boys' handiwork. They all held their breath nervously, hoping she didn't think it was a complete disaster.

But they breathed a sigh of relief when her face erupted with a wide grin and she stared at them through the mirror. "I look pretty!"

"Yes you do, honey," Stiles smiled back. "Do you need help putting on your leotard?"

She was generally self-sufficient when it came to her clothes, but tonight was a big deal for her and Stiles wanted to make sure she had everything she needed.

"Nope," she shook her head, hopping off the stool and skipping towards her bedroom.

They paced outside her closed door of the room that Scott's mother had helped them decorate to look like an enchanted forest, waiting for her to emerge in all of her ballerina glory. When the door cracked open ten minutes later, they turned to it so fast they nearly got whiplash, standing in stunned silence at the sight of Savannah in her pink tutu, leotard, tights, and ballet shoes.

"Okay?" she asked, eyes wide and innocent, understandably concerned that none of them had said anything yet.

"Beautiful," Stiles whispered, dropping to his knees in front of her and placing his hands snugly on her hips. "You look beautiful, baby."

Crinkling her nose as she giggled, she puckered out her lips to give him a quick kiss, leaving a hot pink residue on his mouth, which caused her to giggle even more.

"Come on, Savi," Scott grinned, holding out a hand to his niece. "You can help me do my hair."

Her eyes widened with excitement as she took him up on his offer. She loved playing with Scott's thick locks, molding them into different formations as though she was building a black, curly sandcastle.

The boys changed into outfits that were acceptable to wear in public, Scott complete with a hairstyle by Savannah and headed out towards the high school auditorium where the recital was being held. Once inside, she accepted good luck kisses from her uncles before wrapping her small hand around Stiles's finger as he walked her backstage to join the rest of her class.

She tugged on his finger before they reached the stage door, causing him to look down and see her staring up at him with fear in her big blue eyes.

"Sweetie, what's wrong?" he asked, his heart aching as it always did when he saw her eyes become even remotely wet. If she got teary while they were watching _Fox and the Hound_, he would start bawling as well. Crouching down so he was at her eye level, he wiggled her hand from his finger so he could place his palms at her waist and hold her between his spread knees.

"I'm scared, daddy." Her voice was timid and weak, a stark contrast to her normal bubbly personality. Savannah was generally a ball of sunshine, but at the moment she looked like a cloud about to burst with rain. "What if I mess up?"

"Savi, you've done this routine thousands of times," he assured her, thinking that he'd seen it so many times he could probably get on that stage and do it himself. And he would do just that if it meant he could see his daughter smile again. "You've got this. And if you do mess up, it's ok."

"It is?"

"Of course," he whispered, squeezing her hips lightly. "People mess up all the time. Do you know how many times your Uncle Scott has forgotten words to our songs on stage? It's totally normal. All that matters is that you keep going."

"Ok," she nodded, sounding a little surer of herself. "But what if I get scared on stage?"

Taking one hand off her hip, he reached up to play with the small black hoop he had pierced through his right ear as he pondered the best way to answer that question. After Savannah had come into his life, he'd thought about taking it out, symbolic of shedding his young and reckless lifestyle, but he realized he was thinking too much about what others thought of him. The disapproving looks from people who saw a man with an ear piercing and a young child didn't matter. What mattered was the girl standing in front of him and what she needed. And right now she needed him to be a good father.

"Then look at me," he spoke with conviction. "I'll be right there in the audience if you need me. We all will, me and your uncles. So if you get scared, you just look at us, alright? Because we're always here for you."

Nodding, she stepped forwards and wrapped her little arms around his neck and he pulled her into his chest, embracing her tightly and blinking back tears before he let go. The last thing she needed was to see him become an emotional wreck.

"Good to go?" he smiled comfortingly.

She gave him a thumbs up and he leaned forward to kiss her forehead before opening the stage door and ushering her through. The stage manager wouldn't let him past a certain point, so he enthusiastically waved goodbye, watching her confidence grow as she found her friends in the crowd.

Sighing deeply, he went to go find his seat in the front row, raising his eyebrows in surprise to see Derek holding a giant bouquet of pink roses in his lap.

"For after the show," he explained.

Stiles grinned in thanks, thinking he really was lucky to have his friends and clapped and cheered loudly when the curtain opened a few minutes later.

Savannah was amazing, of course. Her confidence boosted by the raucous cheers she got from the four men in the front row, she performed her piece to perfection, adding in extra blown kisses to her favorite men and was giddy with excitement when they met her backstage after the show.

"Daddy, did you see?" she exclaimed, momentarily forgetting that he'd been watching her every move as she rushed into his arms.

Chuckling, Stiles picked her up easily, resting her on his bicep and smacking a kiss to her cheek. "You were amazing, honey. Congratulations."

"Great job, Sav," Scott said, reaching a hand up to request a high five and grinning when she obliged.

"I think that was the best dancing I've ever seen," Isaac said sincerely.

Derek stepped forward, his hands behind his back and a shy grin on his lips. "I have something for you."

Always a fan of presents, Savannah's eyes widened in excitement. "What? What is it?"

With a dramatic flair, Derek produced the bouquet of flowers and Savannah giggled as she took it into her arms, needing assistance from her father because it was almost bigger than she was.

"You know what I think?" Scott said thoughtfully, as though he was about to state the best idea ever. "I think that was a performance deserving of a trip to the ice cream shop."

"Yay!" Savannah squealed next to her father's ear, causing him to wince.

Still, he couldn't deny that it was a special occasion, so the five of them made their way to the nearest ice cream shop, where Derek lifted her beneath the shoulders as she pressed her nose to the class and took in the assortment of flavors, first choosing strawberry sherbet, but being told no because she was allergic to strawberries, as they had found out the hard way after she'd had the fruit at breakfast and her lips had swelled to an abnormal size. The boys had spent the longest morning of their lives in the hospital emergency room and Stiles had done a cleansing of the house that included even throwing away tubes of strawberry flavored lip balm.

Eventually, Savannah settled on mint chocolate chip because she thought the color was pretty. Finding the way she widened her eyes and jutted out her bottom lip extremely adorable, Stiles bought her a cone. As usual, she dribbled half her ice cream down her chin and the sides of her arms and Isaac wiped her down completely before they returned to the house.

Dessert before dinner was a rare treat, but they did get her to eat Isaac's famous spaghetti because they didn't want her to get hungry in the middle of the night. Of course, the extra sugar made her hyperactive before bedtime, so they played a game of hide and seek to wear her out, running around the house and pretending they didn't hear her giggle from behind the curtains.

She got tired after the fifth round, so Stiles carried her to the bathroom where he helped her brush her teeth before laying her down in her big girl bed, complete with a canopy. As always, they gathered around her bed, ready to entertain her by whatever means necessary until she fell asleep.

"What are we thinking, Sav?" Scott asked, his eyes scanning the spines of the books on the little white bookshelf beside the bed. "Some _Cat in the Hat_? Or are you feeling _Where the Wild Things Are_ more?"

She pursed her little lips, thinking for a moment before her face brightened with a different idea. "Sing! I wanna hear you sing!"

It was a request they got often, so they settled themselves onto her bed, two on each side with Stiles at the front to soothing stroke her hair and launched into their soft rendition of _I'll Stand By You_ by The Pretenders, Savannah's personal favorite. Her eyes fluttered closed and she began to drift off to sleep towards the beginning of the second chorus, but not before she whispered, "Night…love you."

"We love you, too," Stiles whispered back, once they'd finished the song, the other boys echoing his words. Leaning forward, he kissed her forehead and reached to the side to turn on the floral nightlight she couldn't sleep without before they lifted themselves off the bed to ensure they didn't wake her and padded silently towards the door.

Stiles shut off the main light, lingering in the doorway as the boys retreated to their respective rooms, exhausted from the day's events. Casting one last glance at his daughter, looking angelic bathed in the glow of her nightlight, Stiles smiled to himself as he shut the door, thinking he really did have the best family in the world.


	2. Chapter 2

With the hood of his jacket pulled over his perpetually quiffed hair, he weaved through the London streets, his hands shoved into the pockets of his black skinny jeans as he did his best to look inconspicuous.

Normally, he wouldn't go through this much trouble. It wasn't as though he assumed there would always be paparazzi around, because he still found it hard to believe that people wanted pictures of him buying groceries, but there were some situations where it was better to be safe. They had a knack for taking innocent photographs and turning them into something scandalous and after the previous year when they'd captured him simply trying to help a woman when she dropped her purse and twisted it to make it seem like he was stealing, he knew better than to make himself vulnerable.

And meeting someone of the opposite sex was a paparazzi gold mine, so he was being extra cautious. He'd snuck out the back of his hotel and taken the underground system to a stop three blocks from the small bed and breakfast she'd asked him to come to and walked the rest of the way, keeping his hood up to stave off any people who could potentially recognize him and cause a scene.

He arrived at the hotel five minutes after she'd told him to meet and spotted her in the front room, sitting so he could see her profile in a red chair with a high back. Weaving his way around the low coffee tables, he stretched his lips into a friendly smile as he plopped down in the empty chair to her right, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek in greeting.

"Hey, Jen, it's good to see you."

They'd met at a club a little over a year earlier. He'd been blowing off steam after a show, happy that he was finally old enough to be let into clubs and she was out celebrating her friend's birthday. She'd laughed at his jokes and made him feel like he was the only person in the room, which is why he'd kissed her on the dance floor and why he hadn't objected when she suggested they go back to his hotel room. They'd hooked up a few times over the course of his two week stay, but when he left London, neither was under the impression that their relationship would continue. Still, he was happy that they were catching up; he didn't want to be the type of person who just forgot about people when he left.

She didn't look quite as happy to see him, though, and as he laced his fingers together and set them atop where his knee was exposed through the hole in his jeans, he noted that she seemed a little nervous.

"Everything alright?" he asked, furrowing his brow and turning the corners of his lips downwards into a small frown, bringing the corner of his lip between his teeth to scratch at it out of habit.

Twisting in her chair, she turned her torso to face him, her hands coming to lace in her lap, flashing him a completely unconvincing smile. "Yeah…I'm glad you came."

"Of course," he grinned brightly, fond memories of being tangled up in hotel sheets flashing through his brain.

She seemed to be having the same train of thought, because her smile softened and her eyes glazed over for a moment before she shook her head to bring herself back to the present. "I know we had a lot of fun the last time you were here…"

"Yeah…" his smile widened as he wondered if perhaps they would soon be headed upstairs for some more between the sheets enjoyment.

Lips parted, she stared at him for a moment before inhaling deeply and turning to her left and reaching down towards something that was obscured from his view by the arm of the chair. When her arms reappeared, his eyes widened and he found himself paralyzed by the sight.

Cradled in the crook of her elbow, she held a sleeping baby.

"This is Savannah," Jen whispered, looking particularly uncomfortable. "She's yours."

Stiles gaped at the girl and the baby, unsure of what to say, his words coming out in stutters. "Are you sure?"

He wasn't certain why his first instinct was to question it, but all he could think was that his mother was going to kill him.

Rolling her eyes, Jen nodded and stretched out her arms, shifting to hand him the baby and he took her into his arms, praying heavily that he didn't drop her as he stared down at her tiny sleeping form.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he stammered, keeping his eyes focused on the baby for fear that she would slip from his arms at any moment. "I would've been here, I would've helped you with whatever you needed."

Granted, he probably would have undergone a mini breakdown upon finding out, but he would have stood by her if he'd known. Stiles hadn't been raised to run away from his responsibilities and he hated the idea that he hadn't been there for the birth of his own child.

"For a while, I wasn't even sure I was gonna go through with it," she admitted, looking a little relieved to no longer be holding her daughter. "But eventually, I decided to and now…"

He glanced up, expecting her to spout how much she'd fallen in love and not being able to imagine not having the baby, but instead, what came out was, "I don't think I can do this anymore."

"What!?" He spoke a little too loud and immediately looked down to see if the baby was still sleeping, sighing in relief when he saw she was. "What does that mean?"

"I thought I could handle this, Stiles, but I can't." Her eyes were wide and pleading, her fingers twisting together in her lap. "I'm not ready to be a mother. There's still so much I want to do with my life and I was mistaken in thinking motherhood was something I would be good at, because I'm not and she deserves better than a mother who's going to constantly wonder what would happen if she was never born."

It took him a few moments to figure out how to respond and he was glad that the little bundle of a child in his arms couldn't understand what the woman who gave birth to her was saying. "So what now, then? Are you giving her up for adoption?"

She chewed on her bottom lip nervously as though afraid of what his response to her next words would be. "That's up to you."

His eyebrows shot up. "What do you mean?"

"Look," she sighed, leaning forward a little, her gaze apologetic. "I've been trying to figure out what to do for the past couple weeks, but when I heard you were in town, I figured it was a sign and that at the very least, you deserved to know you have a daughter and that you should have a choice in the matter. I'm telling you that I'm walking away, but if you don't want to, that's your decision."

He was still utterly confused and he parted his lips to tell her just that, but she was already rising from her chair, leaning over to grab her purse and place the baby carrier and diaper bag she'd brought on the empty seat. Shooting him one last apologetic glance, she bent down to kiss him on the cheek, completely avoiding looking at the child in his arms, before whispering, "Goodbye, Stiles," and doing just what she said she would; walking away.

At a complete loss for words, he stared down at the child in his arms, wrapped in a soft purple blanket, still unable to comprehend that she was his own flesh and blood.

He'd always wanted kids. Or at least, he thought so. It wasn't something that he'd spent a whole lot of time contemplating as he always assumed it wouldn't be a factor for another few years. He hadn't been in a steady relationship since he was a teenager and he always figured he'd have found someone he wanted to spend forever with before having children.

At twenty one, he was still figuring things out. True Alpha was globally successful. Their work schedules had them in a different city practically every night, whether it was for a concert, signing or recording session. He hadn't been home in nearly four months because each time they thought they might have a break, the demand for them to come to a new country was so great that they'd end up flying there to perform.

He was living the dream; a life most people could only have while they were sleeping, yet more often than not, Stiles felt as though the only place where he had any idea what he was doing was on a stage.

So as he stared down at the tiny life form in his arms, the baby girl who looked so angelic with her small fist balled near her mouth as she slept peacefully, he was absolutely terrified.

Having absolutely no clue how to proceed, he decided that the first course of action would be to get back to his hotel so he could figure things out. There would undoubtedly be paparazzi outside, but he and the boys had perfected the art of sneaking people into their rooms unnoticed. Unfortunately, carrying the baby in the carrier as well as the bag would be a little more difficult, which would mean he'd need help.

Rising slowly, he placed the baby, Savannah he remembered, into the carrier on the chair, strapping her in despite her not moving because he was afraid he would break her, and then dug his phone from the pocket of his tight jeans and pressed a number on his speed dial.

Scott picked up after three rings, his voice cheery as always. "Hey, man. How's it going with Jen?"

Stiles could practically hear the smirk on his friend's face, probably wider than it was when he'd told the boys he was going out to meet Jen a few hours earlier. He glanced down at the sleeping baby, deciding over the phone was not the best time to explain what had happened. "Things have taken an interesting turn. I need your help."

"Cool, what's up?" Scott asked, always ready to help out.

"Can you meet me at the back door of the hotel?"

"Need some help sneaking her in?" Scott chuckled. "Sure, just text me when you're close."

"Thanks, man, will do."

Stiles hung up the phone without correcting his friend, knowing that when he showed up at that back door, all would be explained. He took the same route to return, using back streets and the underground system, his hood pulled over his hair and the diaper bag slung over his shoulder as he held the baby carrier, praying she didn't wake up while wishing he wasn't such a giant. His height often attracted attention and he had a habit of tripping over his long limbs, which was extremely problematic in his current situation.

Still, he managed to get to the back door of the hotel without any incident, frequently checking that he hadn't jolted the baby awake and sighed in relief when he saw Scott standing with his back pushed against the open door, whistling softly as he twirled his room key around his finger.

"Hey," he furrowed his brow in confusion, looking over Stiles because he was expecting so his band mate accompanied by a pretty lady. "Where's Jen?"

"I'll explain inside," Stiles muttered, checking to make sure no one was around before stepping through the door and into the back hallway.

Glancing down as he shut the door, Scott's eyes widened when he noticed the baby carrier and the tiny person it held. "Who the hell is this?"

"Shhhh!" Stiles scolded as he began to take long strides towards the service elevator. The staff in their hotels often gave them special access so they could get in and out without being seen if need be. "You'll wake her up."

"Who is she?" Scott demanded in a stern whisper as Stiles pushed the call button and adjusted his grip on the baby carrier because his arm was beginning to hurt. "Stiles, did you steal a baby?"

"No!" Stiles scoffed as the elevator arrived and he stepped inside, wondering if he should be worried that Scott's first thought had been kidnapping. "She's mine."

There was palpable tension as the doors slid closed and Stiles reached out with his free hand to press the button for the twenty third floor.

"Yours as in…"

"As in, she's my daughter," Stiles replied quietly, not quite ready to make eye contact. "She's the reason Jen wanted to see me tonight."

Out of the corner of his eye, Stiles saw Scott's brow furrow. "Where is Jen?"

Stiles bit down on his bottom lip and sighed. "I promise I'll explain everything later, but right now, can we just get to the room as quickly as possible. The last thing I need right now is for someone to take a picture."

Despite being inside the hotel, Stiles was still wary of fans that could potentially be watching. Or even people that weren't fans, but didn't mind making some quick money by selling a picture of Stiles with a baby to the tabloids.

Nodding, Scott dug his phone from the pocket of his jeans. "I'm gonna tell Isaac and Derek to come to our room."

Stiles didn't bother arguing. They didn't keep secrets from each other, especially not ones of this magnitude. As they became more successful, they found it increasingly difficult to know who to trust and in a world where knowing Stiles's preferred brand of deodorant could land someone on the front page, it was nice to know that he had three people who always had his back.

Once he'd stuffed his phone back in his pocket, Scott reached out to take the strap of the diaper bag from Stiles's shoulder and Stiles let out a sigh of relief as he shifted the baby carrier to his other hand, shooting his best friend a grateful smile.

They walked quickly down the hallway when they reached their floor, relieved to find no guests out and about and let themselves into their suite to see Isaac and Derek lounging on the couch, their feet propped up on the coffee table, having used the spare key the boys always had to each other's rooms.

"What's going on?" Derek asked, he and Isaac looking up from their phones as Stiles and Scott entered, Scott dropping the diaper bag on the floor near the door and Stiles lowering his hood. "Scott made it sound serious."

Rather than responding verbally, Stiles walked towards the coffee table with baby carrier in hand before reaching down to push Derek's feet off the table and setting it on top so the two on the couch could get a good look at the baby.

"What the hell is that?" Isaac asked with a horrified gasp, removing his feet from the table as well and staring at the baby as though she was an alien from another planet.

"It's a baby, Isaac," Stiles rolled his eyes, though he supposed he shouldn't be so harsh when he had been freaking out less than an hour before. "My baby, to be more specific. I got Jen pregnant the last time I was here."

"Oh," Derek said softly.

There was silence as Scott settled himself on the couch next to Isaac, the three of them watching as Stiles began to pace on the other side of the coffee table, his fingers tugging through his hair and his teeth worrying his piercing against his lower lip.

"She said she doesn't want to be involved," he finally let out, throwing his arms open. "Jen said she can't be a mother and that what happens to Savannah is up to me."

"Who's Savannah?"

In his state of distress, it took Stiles a few moments to figure out that Isaac had spoken. Pausing his pacing, he gestured at the baby carrier where the infant was, by some miracle, still sleeping soundly. "That's Savannah."

"Pretty name," Scott commented, his tone even and calming, which allowed Stiles to take a deep breath to slow his pulse and nod in agreement.

Staring at the sleeping baby, Stiles let out a soft sigh. "Shit, guys, what do I do?"

"Should you be cursing in front of the baby?" Derek frowned, raising one eyebrow as he gazed at the infant.

"I don't think she can understand," Isaac piped up, tilting her to the side and looking at her for confirmation as though she was actually going to respond.

"Guys!" Stiles drew their attention with an exasperated wave of his arms. "You're not being helpful."

Derek and Isaac muttered apologies under their breath while Scott took off his beanie and set it to the side to rake a hand through his sandy curls before leaning forward to look at Stiles intently, his elbows resting on his knees.

"Bro," Scott said quietly, keeping Stiles's gaze. "You know we love you and we'll support whatever decision you make, but at the end of the day, it's still your decision. She's your kid. You have to be the one to decide. Are you going to take responsibility for her or are you going to walk away?"

Unsure of how to respond, Stiles began to pace once more, nearly ripping out his hair as the boys watched him walk back and forth. On one hand, he knew that sticking by his daughter was the responsible thing to do, but on the other, he knew absolutely nothing about parenting, so what if he turned out to be completely awful at it? The last thing he wanted was for his child to wish she had a better father.

He wrestled with his decision until he was so exhausted from the weight of his mind that he had to sit down. Wedging himself on the couch between Isaac and Scott, he stared at the baby, eyes widening when he noticed her eyelids fluttering open.

"Dude," Isaac nudged him in the side. "I think she's waking up."

They all held their breath, silently willing her not cry and let out a collective sigh of relief when she just stared back at them, her large brown eyes wide and inquisitive.

"She kinda looks like you," Derek said, tilting his head to the side and glancing between her and Stiles.

"You think?" Stiles asked. He couldn't really see the resemblance, but he also thought all babies looked the same.

"Maybe you should try holding her," Scott advised, nodding towards the carrier. "See how it feels."

Stiles wasn't entirely sure that holding the baby would solidify his decision one way or the other, but he figured he might as well give it a shot.

Holding his breath, he pushed himself to his feet, leaning over the table to carefully unwrap the soft purple blanket and lift her from the carrier by picking her up beneath her shoulders. He stood up straight, holding her out awkwardly with his elbows bent. Having no idea what to do next, he glanced at Scott for direction. Stiles and Isaac were only children and Derek wasn't exactly paternal, but Scott had spent many a night helping his mother in the pediatric wing at the hospital, so his expertise was completely relevant, seeing as he was the only one who had any at all.

Rolling his eyes, Scott stood beside Stiles, placing his hand flat against Savannah's back and pushing her slowly towards Stiles's chest. Stiles stared down at her, his eyes wide as he tried not to grip her too tightly for fear that she might break but also terrified he would drop her at any moment.

She kicked her little legs and wiggled her little arms, her blue onesie covered limbs flailing in every direction and making it difficult for him to keep his grip.

"Try holding her with your arms instead of your hands," Scott offered.

Nodding, Stiles took a deep breath before sliding his hand over and down so his arm was wrapped just below her bottom and moving his other hand over her small torso, holding her to his chest, her cheek resting against his leather jacket covered shoulder.

Letting out a sigh of relief when she still didn't protest, he bounced lightly on his knees in hopes that it would keep her calm, his lips slowly stretching into a small smile. "This isn't so bad."

Apparently he spoke too soon, because about five seconds later, she spit up all over his shoulder.

Isaac and Derek snorted with laughter as they watched Stiles's profile change from uneasy awe to absolute disgust.

"Can you guys help me out, please?" Stiles begged, his heart momentarily stopping it's beating when she began to cry.

Horrified and covered in spit, he started bouncing again, stroking her soft baby hair as he attempted not to burst into tears as well. Her screams were high pitched and varied between long and short and he decided immediately that he would do anything to never have her make that sound again.

"Is she hungry?" Isaac asked warily, "Or maybe she pooped?"

It was a solid reason for her tears and one that he could check immediately, so he slowly lowered his chin until his nose was just above her bottom and took a big whiff, letting out a huge sigh of relief when he smelled nothing. Changing diapers wasn't a mountain he'd have to climb tonight.

"Hungry could be it," Stiles said, his bouncing continuing as he winced at every shriek. "Shhh, Savannah. It's alright. I'm gonna get you some food."

Turning his head, he sent Derek a pleading glance. "Can you check that bag by the door and see if there's any food or bottles or anything?"

Nodding, Derek did as he was told, digging through the bag to pull out a bottle filled with white powder and raised his head to shoot the boys a look of utter confusion.

"It's formula," Scott explained, walking around the table to take the bottle. "We gotta add water and then heat it up. Come on."

Scott and Derek disappeared to the suite's small kitchen, leaving Isaac on the couch to watch as Stiles attempted to soothe the infant pressed against his chest.

"This isn't working," Stiles said worriedly to Isaac as she continued to cry into his jacket, despite his bouncing and hushing. Every wail was like a stab in the heart and he was about a minute away from bursting into tears himself. "Do you have any ideas?"

Twisting Savannah's torso slowly, Stiles splayed his fingers across her tummy to hold her back to his chest, hoping a change of scenery might distract her enough to stop the crying. It didn't though, and Isaac felt a pain in his chest as he watched his best friend struggle.

Although Isaac loved children, he'd never been in a situation where he had to calm one down, because generally, their parents were always around. Though, he supposed that was the case here too, but Stiles wasn't going to win a father of the year award anytime soon. Still, Isaac wanted to help, so he did the only thing he could think of to cheer her up: he made faces at her.

Puffing out his cheeks, he widened his eyes and stared at her and miraculously, she became quiet.

"Do that again!" Stiles sighed in relief.

This time, Isaac crossed his eyes and stuck out his tongue, which made Savannah smile and he couldn't help but imitate the action. Sitting down beside his friend, Stiles turned her tiny body so that her onesie covered feet were resting atop the knees exposed through his holey jeans and began to make faces at her as well, contorting his face into a different strange expression every few seconds and breathing continued sighs of relief when it continued to make her smile.

When Scott and Derek returned from the kitchen with the formula, they found their bandmates in the midst of a competition to see who could make the funniest face and chuckled at the sight, but were glad that for the first time since returning to the hotel, Stiles looked somewhat relaxed.

"Wanna feed her?" Scott asked, shaking the bottle of formula in his hand.

Nodding, Stiles rose from the couch to place her back in the baby carrier, his heart dropping when she began to squirm and cry once more, missing the comfort of being held.

"It's alright, Savannah," Stiles cooed, his hand reaching out to gently stroke over her hair. "I'm just gonna get you some food. No worries, though. Daddy's right here."

The word dropped from his lips unintentionally and as soon as he realized what he'd said, his eyes widened and he looked at his friends, who seemed equally astonished at how easily he'd referred to himself as her father. He didn't have time to think about the implications, though, because the softness of his voice and the stroking of his hand over her head was the only thing keeping her from crying.

Squatting down in front of her, he reached up with his free hand to retrieve the bottle from Scott, shooting his friend a grateful smile before bringing the bottle to Savannah's lips, hoping she'd automatically do as he wanted.

He should have known better than to think it would be that easy, because she refused to part her lips. Scooting closer, he continued to hold the bottle at her mouth, speaking softly as he did. "Come on, baby. Please eat. Please eat for Daddy."

It took him about another minute of begging before her mouth opened and she took the nib of the bottle between her lips and began to suck.

The four boys let out an audible sigh, laughing quietly as she drank.

"She's pretty cute, bro," Derek commented, taking a seat beside Isaac as Scott did the same beside Stiles. "Nice work."

"Thanks, man," Stiles laughed, allowing the sense of happiness and calm to wash over him and relax his muscles.

When the bottle was empty, they checked her diaper again, breathing deeply when they discovered it still didn't need to be changed and then it was time to try to get her to go back to sleep. Isaac held her, cautiously and far away from his body, as Stiles shrugged off his jacket and made a metal note to get it dry cleaned before taking her into his arms and beginning to pace.

He held her against his chest, bouncing her lightly and singing _My Girl_ softly into her ear because he remembered that his mother's humming as he fell asleep always used to make him feel safe and loved as a child. It took about half an hour before he felt her breathing slow and her movements still and he pressed a kiss to the top of her head before going to lay her down.

They decided the baby carrier was the safest place for her to sleep until other arrangements could be made, so the boys moved the coffee table into Stiles's bedroom and set the carrier on top so that Stiles could check on her in the middle of the night if need be.

"So?" Scott asked, clapping a hand on Stiles's back as the four of them watched her sleep. "Made your decision?"

Stiles stared at her in wonder. Six hours ago, he couldn't have imagined being a father at his age, but as he looked down at his tiny creation, all he could feel was love. He had no idea if he would be good at parenthood, but Stiles was a quick learner and he was as loyal and loving as they came and he knew he'd do as much for her as he possibly could. The past few hours had been exhausting and terrifying, but at the same time, amazing and wonderful. He'd learned so much from someone who couldn't even speak. Stiles had never really believed that you could fall in love at first sight, but he was certain, after spending only a few hours with Savannah, that she was the love of his life.

She needed him and perhaps he needed her as well. Perhaps she was always meant to be a part of his life.

Sure, like Jen, there were still plenty of things he wanted to accomplish, but he figured those things might be infinitely more amazing with his daughter at his side.

"I'm gonna do this," he said, with slightly more confidence than he felt. "I'm gonna be her Dad."

"Ok," Isaac nodded as Scott squeezed Stiles's shoulder, not even a little surprised by his decision. Despite Stiles's distrust in his parenting abilities, it seemed to come naturally to him and the boys knew he would never turn his back on someone who needed him. "If you want, we'll be with you when you talk to people about it. Like, management and the press and stuff."

Stiles wasn't really thinking that far ahead, but he appreciated the show of support nonetheless and nodded gratefully. They were brothers after all; they were always there for each other, not matter the situation.

"Do you guys think I can do this?" Stiles asked, staring at his sleeping daughter, still finding it amazing that he had created something that beautiful. He had already firmly decided that he was going to do everything in his power to be the best father on the planet, but words of encouragement were nice to hear. "Do you guys think I can raise her by myself?"

He got worried when Scott started shaking his head, but relaxed and grinned when he heard the words that came out of his mouth, the other boys joining together to squeeze Stiles in a group hug.

"You won't be doing it alone, bro. You've always got us."


	3. Chapter 3

He woke up because he heard murmuring. As his eyes fluttered open, he recognized Derek's voice first.

"He's gonna be pissed."

Stiles furrowed his brow at the guitarist's words, not saying anything just yet as he propped himself up on his elbows, and listened to his band's conversation through the closed hotel bedroom door. It sounded like the boys were in the seating area, apparently worried about someone's reaction to something.

"Of course he's gonna be pissed. I'm pissed."

It was Isaac that spoke this time. Stiles imagined him tugging his fingers through his thick sandy curls as he spoke, pacing up and down the room.

"Well, unfortunately, us being pissed doesn't change the fact that it exists," Scott spoke, always the voice of reason.

Stiles wasn't entirely sure what was happening, but he had other things on his mind, because when he looked to the right, the bed was empty, which meant he was clueless as to the whereabouts of his two year old.

Savannah had officially stopped sleeping in a crib about two months ago and ever since then, she'd been sharing a bed with her father while the band was on tour. She was too small to need a double bed to herself and besides, Stiles loved having her curled into his side, her tiny fist clutching the front of his t-shirt as she slept.

Pushing back the covers, he swung his legs over the side of the bed, lowering his feet to the floor and padding towards the door, his fists in his eyes to wipe away the sleep. He heard high pitched squealing as soon as he opened the door.

"Mawneeng Daddy!"

Speaking was also somewhat recent, so her pronunciation wasn't quite correct just yet.

Still, he smiled at the sound of her voice, his eyes instantly locating her on the floor in front of the television, playing with the stuffed bunny Derek bought her in Paris, the coffee table that usually sat there pushed aside to make space for her play mat.

"Good morning, princess," Stiles grinned, walking around to sit on the couch next to Isaac and Scott, who had been talking to Derek as he sat with his legs stretched out on the floor beside Savannah.

"Look, Daddy," Savannah said her brown eyes lighting and her curls bouncing as she stood up beside Derek and reaching out to tug on his hair, which had been shaved shorter last night after Savannah went to sleep. "Unca Dewek hair shor."

"That it is," Stiles grinned, proud that she was learning new words. "It's pretty."

The boys all laughed, sounding more relaxed than their tones had indicated through the door. Stiles was still curious, however, as to what all the tension was about, so as Savannah padded over to him and he lifted her into his lap, his arms locking around her stomach to hug her from behind and press a kiss to the top of her head as a good morning greeting, he shot his band mates a questioning look. "What's going on?"

The three of them exchanged wary looks before Scott tugged his fingers through his curls and sighed. "There's something you should see."

Isaac lifted his phone from where it was resting on the arm of the couch, turning it on and tapping the screen a few times until he found what he was looking for before holding it out for Stiles to see. Furrowing his brow in concentration, Stiles scanned the words on the screen, his lips pressing together in anger the more he read.

**_True Secrets: Stiles Stilinski has an illegitimate child_**

"What the fuck?"

As soon as he spoke, his eyes widened in horror and he looked to down to ensure Savannah hadn't understood, letting out a small sigh of relief when he saw she was still making faces at her stuffed rabbit. Moving one hand so his fingers tickled her stomach and caused her to giggle, he smiled softly as he pressed a kiss to her cheek before speaking quietly next to her ear. "Sav, darling, will you go play on the mat? Your uncles and I need to have a talk."

She didn't understand what that meant, but she knew her father and uncles needed to do something adult like, so she nodded and wiggled her feet as Stiles lowered her to the floor, plopping down on the mat again beside Derek, who kept one eye on her, but leaned forward to participate in the conversation.

Stiles rubbed his fingers over his eyes in frustration. "How did this happen?"

It wasn't as though Stiles had spent the past year and a half actively denying that he had a child, but he hadn't really announced Savannah's existence to the world either. The truth was that he had no idea what he was doing half the time and figuring out how to raise a child while part of a touring band was difficult and crazy enough without involving the media. As it was, there were fans and paparazzi practically any time they were in public and he didn't want to expose Savannah to that if it wasn't necessary.

So the unaware public never knew she was around. She was carried in and out of venues and hotels through the back doors by members of the crew. If anybody ever saw her, chances were that they probably assumed she was someone else's child.

Besides, none of the boys were known to have been in steady relationships, so it wouldn't make sense for people to connect Savannah to any of them.

But apparently somebody had finally figured it out.

"This is the picture that was posted along with the article." Isaac turned the phone towards him to scroll a little further down the page before showing Stiles the screen once more.

Stiles squeezed his eyes shut at the sight, hoping it might go away, but when they reopened, it was still there. It was a picture of him holding Savannah against his chest, her cheek resting against his shoulder as she slept while he carried her on to a plane at Heathrow.

He really should have accounted for the fact that everybody had cameras in their cell phones, but when he saw her fall asleep at the terminal, all he was thinking about was that she looked utterly adorable and he didn't have the heart to wake her up, which was what would have happened if someone else tried to carry her. She could sense when she wasn't in her father's arms. It wasn't normally a problem and she was perfectly content if she was being carried by one of her uncles or a member of the crew, but she wouldn't have stayed asleep.

"Ok," he sighed, glancing at Savannah, who was making her bunny dance. "But how do they know she's mine?"

Scott shrugged, lacing his fingers together between his parted knees. "Honestly, that part is probably just random guessing. Since they have a picture of you holding her, they probably just decided to name her as yours. And the picture is enough to make anyone believe it. The problem is that if someone starts digging, it's only a matter of time before they concretely prove the truth."

Stiles knew Scott was right. Up to a certain point, the general public would be fascinated by the rumors and then move on if nothing else was said about it, but there was always that one reporter who was determined to find the truth and this case, Stiles was afraid that ignoring it would only make things worse. He didn't like not being able to control the situation.

Weaving his fingers through his bed head, Stiles sighed. "So I should make an official statement?"

"It's up to you," Derek called out, making his eyes wide and puffing out his cheeks to send Savannah into a giggle fit. "But if you do it, you take away their power to make it into something it's not."

He supposed that was always a bonus. Still, he needed some time to mull over his options, so he set a deadline and decided that a decision on the action needed to be made by the end of the day.

"We better start getting ready," he sighed. The boys didn't question him because they knew Stiles would make up his mind in due time. Getting Savannah ready for the day took a little while and they had to leave for soundcheck in a couple hours, so they needed to get a move on. "Savannah? Babe, are you hungry?"

She nodded, rubbing her stomach over the top of her teddy bear nightgown.

"Can you go with Uncle Isaac to brush your teeth while I get your breakfast ready?"

Her face lit up and she jumped to her feet, toddling over to Isaac, who laughed as he scooped her into his arms and stood to carry her to the bathroom. He held her up by the hips as she brushed her teeth and leaned her over the sink to help her rinse and by the time he was bringing her back into the eating area, their usual room service breakfast of fruit and toast had been delivered and Savannah was lowered into her high chair next to Stiles as the rest of the boys sat down to eat.

She nibbled on a piece of toast slathered with butter and drank apple juice from her favorite blue sip cup and afterwards, Stiles bathed her in the hotel bathtub while she wore the red polka dotted swimsuit that had been a present from her Grandma Melissa.

Scott returned from the room he was sharing with Isaac in time to help Savannah get dressed so that Stiles could quickly shower and change and Stiles was in the process of packing Savannah's bag full of toys and snacks and changes of clothes while she sat in the middle of his bed surrounded by a buffer of pillows when Pete, the head of their security team, knocked on the door of the room he was sharing with Derek.

"Hey, man," Derek smiled widely when he answered. "The car already out back?"

Because of Savannah, they had gotten into a routine of leaving out of the back of hotels. They knew there were always groups of fans and paparazzi in the front and although Stiles hated that he missed out on meeting fans, his daughter's safety was his number one priority.

The security guard winced, shooting Derek and then Stiles, who was walking towards the front with Savannah on his hip and the strap of her bag slung over his shoulder, an apologetic look. "Actually, there's a bit of a problem. The back road is completely blocked off for some construction they just started, so the car had no choice but to pull around to the front."

"Out front?" Stiles's eyebrows shot up as he shifted Savannah against his hip anxiously. "Are there a lot of people out there?"

"A good number of fans," Pete admitted. "And I saw some paparazzi camped out across the street."

Stiles held in a curse, but Pete spoke again, knowing exactly what the guitarist was thinking.

"I won't let anything happen to her. I promise."

"Thanks, man," Stiles sighed, rubbing a hand soothingly up and down Savannah's back, turning to look at her with a serious expression. "Sav, Uncle Pete's gonna take you to the car. Daddy will meet you there, ok? Stay close to him, promise?"

Savannah nodded, flattening her tiny palms against Stiles's cheeks, pressing them in and causing him to laugh. "Pwamise."

"Thank you, sweetheart," Stiles nuzzled his nose against hers. "Can I have a kiss?"

She smacked her lips against his loudly and dramatically, giggling as she twisted in his arms and reached out for Pete, prepared to be carried to the car as usual. The security team took turns getting her swiftly in and out of venues and she was used to babbling on about her eventful day as they did so. Pete pulled her against chest, holding her on his arm and smiling as she began to tell him all about the marvels of Derek's newly short hair.

Stiles and Derek grabbed their duffel bags with their stage clothes – their instruments had been loaded the night before – and followed Pete into the hallway, where Scott and Isaac were waiting.

They took deep breaths once they reached the lobby, preparing themselves for the screaming and camera flashes that were bound to occur. Scott stepped out first, his smile wide and hand held up in a wave, Isaac and Derek followed by Savannah and Pete, with Stiles bringing up the rear so he could keep an eye on his daughter. The hope was that the fans and paparazzi would be too preoccupied with the first three band members to notice the toddler in the security guard's arms.

It seemed to be going alright for the first few minutes, the boys pausing to take a few selfies with fans, kissing them on the cheek when they asked as Pete and Savannah slowly pushed their way through the crowd. Stiles kept one eye on his daughter at all times, his gaze finding her in the crowd after every picture and he felt his heart cracking as he watched her become increasingly scared with each passing minute.

Despite the fact that she wasn't getting too much attention besides the occasional coo about the adorable little girl, she was completely overwhelmed. Never before had she been in the midst of such a large crowd. Adding in the screaming and the flashing lights from the cameras and it was like her own personal hell.

Stiles watched as her eyes widened with tears and her bottom lip quivered and when she began to wail he felt his heart shatter completely.

"Daaaaddyyyyyy!"

Handing a fan back her phone, he pushed his way forward, grabbing hold of Savannah who was reaching out towards him, struggling to get out of Pete's grasp, and pulling her against his chest. Cradling the back of her head in his hand, he held her close as her legs locked around his hips and she sobbed into the shoulder of the leather jacket she'd spit up on when she was a baby.

"It's alright, baby," he hushed her, pressing kisses to the top of her head and speaking softly as he pushed his way through the crowd as quickly as possible, ignoring the looks of the shocked fans who were slowly coming to the realization that the rumors were true. "It's alright. I'm right here. Daddy's right here. Everything's alright."

Her wailing stopped once she was in her father's arms and she hiccupped lightly against his chest as he slid into the car beside Scott, shooting Pete a grateful glance as he shut the door and blocked out the noise.

"Well…" Derek said as Savannah's breathing slowly returned to normal and her sobs became less frequent as the large black SUV pulled out of the hotel drive and onto the street. "That didn't go as planned."

"I just confirmed everything, didn't I?" Stiles sighed, his hand rubbing up and down Savannah's back as she curled against his chest and closed her eyes.

"I know this probably isn't what you want to hear," Scott said, "But videos of that are going to be online within the hour. You might need to move up your timeline for deciding what you want to do."

Stiles knew he was right, but at the moment, he was more concerned with getting Savannah back to her normal bubbly self, so he hugged her close until her breathing was back to normal, carrying her through the back door of the venue into their dressing room.

She was pretty much back to normal by the time they arrived, the color returning to her cheeks and her usual peppiness bursting through once more. Stiles set her down, sighing in relief as he watched her toddle around the room, fascinated by the signed band posters and graffiti decorating the walls.

"She seems to be ok," Isaac noted, clasping a hand on Stiles's shoulder and squeezing supportively. "Shaken a bit, but ok."

"Yeah," Stiles nodded, dropping the bag with his stage clothes on the floor by the couch. "Now I just have to figure out what to do."

"Whatever you decide, bro," Derek called out, scooping Savannah into his arms and pretending to eat her cheek to send her into a fit of giggles. "We're here for you."

He mulled it over during soundcheck. Normally, one of their crew would watch Savannah in the dressing room while they tuned their instruments and made sure the volume was at the right level. But Stiles was still easy about the events that had occurred earlier, so he had her sit in a chair in the audience, sound cancelling headphones securely placed over her ears as she swung her feet off the edge of the seat and dressed up drawings in her sticker book.

By the end of soundcheck, he had come to a decision.

"I want to make a video," he announced to the boys, plopping down behind Savannah on the dressing room floor and stretching his legs out on either side of her, looking over her shoulder and watching as she picked the right shirt sticker for the book character, content from her lunch of fried rice. "To post for the fans."

"Like an Instagram video?" Isaac asked, settling back into the worn out leather couch.

"Yeah." Stiles tugged affectionately on the end of Savannah's half ponytail. "A sort of introduction, I guess. Now that the information is out there, I want to make sure they know how important she is to me and how much she means to me and that the fact that press is calling her 'illegitimate' is ridiculous."

"It makes sense," Derek nodded, plopping down beside Isaac, Scott finding his seat at the end. "And I don't want to discourage you or anything, but what are you going to say about her mother?"

If he was being honest, Stiles hadn't given it much thought. Ever since his lawyers had tracked down Savannah's mother and had her legally sign over her right to custody, she'd been nothing but a distant memory, a fun couple of nights he'd had when he was younger and a little less wiser.

"It's no one's business," Stiles replied firmly. Savannah was the only person who had any right to ask questions about her mother and if she did, he planned on answering them honestly.

The boys respected that answer, so Scott dug his phone from his pocket and went to the camera, aiming it at Stiles before he spoke. "Just tell me when."

"Thanks, man," Stiles smiled gratefully. "Start with just me on the screen. You'll know when to show her."

Poking his tongue between his lips, Scott nodded, training the camera to show only Stiles's head and shoulders before pressing the record button and shooting Stiles a thumbs up to indicate he should begin.

"Hey guys," Stiles raised one hand in a wave, the other planted on the ground behind him, the sound of his voice causing Savannah to tilt her head up at her father in interest. He glanced down at her for a moment, smiling widely as he continued. "I know there are a lot of things being said about me in the papers and online and I just wanted to clear some things up." Pausing, he nodded for Scott to lower the camera to include Savannah in the shot. "I wanted to introduce you guys to someone. This is Savannah…my daughter."

Savannah looked confused at the mention of her name, so Stiles lowered his lips until they were beside her ear and spoke softly. "Sav, honey, can you say hi to the camera?"

She lifted her hand cautiously at first, though her waving became more vigorous and excited when Isaac and Derek made faces and waved at her in return to encourage the action. Giggling, she leaned back into Stiles's chest, pulling her sticker book with her.

"She's cute, huh?" Stiles laughed, smiling down at her adoringly and affectionately pecking the top of her head before grinning at the camera. "That's all I really wanted to say. Hope you guys are doing good and thanks for always sticking by us. You're the best. Love you."

"Lub youuu!" Savannah echoed, waving her hand once more, not knowing what was going on, but practicing her speech by copying her father as she'd been doing for the past few months.

Laughing, Stiles raised a hand in a goodbye wave. "Bye guys."

Scott ended the recording and they all let out a deep exhale as he posted the video to the band's Instagram account.

He was slightly on edge during the show. On one hand, he was glad the video was posted and out there because it gave him a chance to take control of the situation, but on the other he wasn't sure how the fans and the media were going to respond. He didn't ask them about it during the show, thinking it an inappropriate forum, but after the show, when he returned to the dressing room to find Savannah still awake, playing with a spare set of his drumsticks while she wore her noise cancelling headphones, he held her in his lap as he sat on the couch and checked the comments below the video.

They seemed positive for the most part, wishing him luck and saying he'd probably make a great dad. Of course, there were the negative ones sprinkled in, saying he was irresponsible and stupid for getting a girl knocked up in the first place, but he supposed that came with the territory.

Letting out a sigh of relief, he stuffed his phone into his pocket and wrapped his arms around Savannah's middle, holding her close to his chest. "You tired, Sav?"

Nodding, she blinked her eyes slowly, sleep beginning to overcome her small body.

"Let's get you to bed, huh?" he asked, kissing the top of her head.

He lay her down on the couch to take a nap while they packed up their things, but squatted down beside her and gently shook her awake once they were ready to go. It was possible that she wouldn't have woken up while he carried her out, but he didn't want her to be scared if her eyes fluttered open on the way to the car and she noticed the crowd of people outside.

"Hey, sweetie," he whispered as her eyes slowly opened, brushing her curls away from her forehead. "We're gonna go out to the car now, ok?"

She nodded.

He paused before he continued. "Remember when we were coming and there were a lot of people?"

Her eyes widened in fear and he stroked her head gently to keep her calm. "That might happen again, but don't be scared, ok? I'm going to be with you the whole time."

He'd decided that he would be the one to carry her out. Since everybody now knew about her anyway, it didn't make sense to have the security guards do it anymore.

"Pwomise?" she whispered, the fear in her voice making his heart ache.

"I promise," he nodded, lowering his hands to beneath her shoulders and lifted her off the couch, standing up and holding her beneath her bottom so she could lie against his chest and attempt to sleep, her eyes fluttering closed once more as her hand reached up to grip his t-shirt in her little fist. His other hand rubbed circles into her back because he knew it helped calm her down, and he shot the other boys a grateful smile when they helped to carry his bags.

Taking a deep breath, he hugged his daughter tight and kissed the top of her head and he and Savannah went out to face the screaming masses the same way they would end up facing all their obstacles: together.


	4. Chapter 4

"Why is Uncle Scott being so weird?"

Stiles looked up from where he was setting the table to see Savannah skipping into the kitchen, brown curly pigtails bouncing atop her head and Derek trailing close behind. He shot a confused glance at Derek, who just shrugged before making his way to the cupboard to select his cereal for the morning.

Briefly glaring at Isaac, who was sitting at the end of the table, snickering into his coffee cup, Stiles helped Savannah climb into her chair. "What do you mean, Sav?"

"He won't let me play with his hair." Her eyes were wide as she gazed up at her father, her bottom lip jutted out as though Scott had committed a major travesty. Though to her, he probably had; she loved sticking her fingers in his thick curls and molding them to her liking.

"I'm sorry, babe," Stiles shrugged, pouring her Cheerios into her bowl and watching her pick up her plastic handled spoon. He couldn't very well force Scott to make Savannah his permanent hair stylist, no matter how much the five year old's pout made his heart melt.

"And he changed his shirt six times." She said it matter of factly because she'd sat in the middle of his bed and practiced her counting against the button ups of various colors that Scott and shrugged on and off his shoulders.

This was surprising to all of the boys. Scott McCall was many things, but fashion conscious was not one of them. He practically lived in jeans and t-shirts.

Stiles, Derek, and Isaac exchanged curious glances as they slipped into their chairs around the table, silently racking their brains as to what could possibly have made Scott uptight before Isaac's eyes sparked with recognition and his lips stretched into a wide grin.

"It's Valentine's Day."

Stiles and Derek let out simultaneous sounds of understanding, nodding their heads as they began to stir their cereal into their milk.

Scott had recently begun casually seeing a girl he'd met at a friend's New Year's Eve party and for the first time in a while, he felt as though it could actually be going somewhere. Valentine's Day would be the first big milestone in their relationship, so it made sense that he was nervous for the night ahead.

"What a sucker," Isaac muttered, shoving a spoonful of Cheerios into his mouth.

"No plans tonight, Isaac?" Derek asked.

Isaac shrugged, swallowing before he responded. "I might see Kayla."

Kayla was a girl Isaac hooked up with whenever one of them was feeling lonely. Valentine's Day seemed like an appropriate occasion for them to meet.

"Do you guys ever, like, go on dates?" Stiles asked, genuinely curious.

"Nah, man," Isaac shook his head. "I have rules against taking girls out on Valentine's Day. They start expecting too much."

Stiles snorted into his cereal bowl as Derek rolled his eyes and fixed the lead singer with a sarcastic glare. "You're such a catch, Isaac."

"Hey, not all of us can have it as together as you," Isaac said defensively.

About six months ago, Derek had reconnected with a former flame and they'd decided to give it another chance. So far, things were going well and Derek wasn't freaked out about the night ahead because he'd planned the date about two weeks in advance.

If this situation had occurred five years before, Derek would have would have given Isaac the finger, but the boys had learned to be sensitive to innocent eyes and ears, so Derek settled for sticking his tongue out instead.

"What's Valentine's Day?"

Savannah's question came just as Scott strolled into the kitchen, dressed in his usual outfit of jeans and a loose t-shirt, giving no indication that he'd considered other clothing options. Stopping behind the five year old's chair, he quickly kissed her on top of her head as a morning greeting before taking his seat at the table and reaching over for the box of Cheerios.

Stiles held in a laugh because Scott was completely unaware that Savannah had let out his little secret and set his gaze on his daughter, reaching out with his thumb to wipe away a line of milk that had dribbled down her chin. "Valentine's Day is a holiday where people tell each other how much they love each other."

"They don't love each other every day?" she asked, wide eyed and befuddled because she couldn't remember a day when her father and uncles hadn't told her they loved her at least three times each. She wasn't really old enough to fully understand what it meant, but she knew it made her feel warm and happy and safe.

"No, they do," Stiles quickly replied. "Today's just a day where they show it."

"Show?" She tilted her head to the side, causing one of her pigtails to fall against her cheek.

He was doing a horrible job of explaining, so he was grateful when Scott piped up.

"They give each other things," he said, "Like presents. To show that they love the other person."

She still looked utterly confused and the boys looked at each, at a complete loss for words at how to make the situation better, but a quick glance at their phones for the time made them realize it was a conversation that had to be finished later.

"You guys gotta get going," Derek said after checking his phone.

The boys had been itching to work with music producer Rocky Hollis for months and they'd recently found out that he was going to be in Beacon Hills for a short period of time, so they'd jumped on the chance to go in for couple writing sessions. Stiles and Scott were booked to work with him today, while Isaac and Derek would go tomorrow.

"Right," Stiles nodded, taking one last bite of his cereal before picking up his and Savannah's now empty bowl. "Sav, baby, can you go get ready for school? Uncle Derek is gonna take you."

Nodding, she wiggled her little feet to the floor and slipped out of her chair, skipping out of the room and up the stairs to get her things. She'd only recently started school, an experience that was emotional for all of them as they had grown so accustomed to having her around all the time and Stiles knew it was only the start of her journey to becoming a grown up.

She absolutely loved it, though, and she'd come home in the afternoons with her arms full of crafts they'd made in art class and chatter on about the books her teacher read them and the friends she'd made, and he'd let out a sigh of relief at the knowledge that it was going well.

The boys cleared the table and cleaned up the kitchen as much as they could before going to their rooms to get ready for the day. Stiles had just finished the last check of his hair and shoved his wallet and phone into the pockets of his jeans when Savannah wandered into his room, ready to go in her yellow sundress, Velcro strapped white sneakers, and the straps of her pink plastic backpack securely hitched on her shoulders, an ensemble that she and Derek had chosen together that morning.

"Ready!" She smiled up at him brightly when he emerged from the bathroom.

"You look very beautiful, Miss Savannah," he said, reaching down to pick her up when she extended her arms, easily bringing her up to his hip, where her small legs immediately locked against his waist.

"Thank you," she said shyly, remembering what her father had taught her about manners.

Scrunching up his nose, he rubbed it against hers, causing her to giggle and thus his heart to soar, before carrying her down the stairs, where Derek was waiting by the front door, twirling his car keys around his finger.

"You pumped for school, Savi?" Derek grinned, wiggling his fingers at the five year old, whose hands were busy playing with the hair on the back of her father's head.

"Yeah!" She exclaimed, smiling widely at her uncle as Scott and Isaac entered the front hall to say their goodbyes.

"Yay!" Stiles laughed, turning his head to look at his daughter. "Alright, babe. Uncle Scott and I have to go, but I'll see you when I get home. Uncle Isaac's gonna pick you up from school, ok?"

"Ok," she nodded, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her face to his cheek. "Have a good day, Daddy."

"Thank you, baby," he grinned, rubbing her back with his hand until she pulled away and then leaning forward to give her a goodbye kiss. "Love you."

"Love you," she chimed, wriggling in Stiles's arms and reaching out towards Scott, who took the opportunity to lift her into his chest and hug her tight before accepting a goodbye kiss as well. "Love you, Uncle Scott!"

"Love you, too, Sav," Scott laughed as he set her down on the ground.

Stiles and Scott and headed out the car, waving goodbye to the boys and Savannah standing in the doorway before driving towards the studio.

The writing session went better than they could have hoped and they ended up with a song they were proud of and didn't embarrass themselves in front of a producer they admired. They arrived home in the late afternoon, satisfied with the day's accomplishments.

"Daddydaddydaddydaddy!"

They heard Savannah before they saw her, her voice ringing throughout the house, followed by the pitter pattering of her feet from upstairs. His immediate thoughts were dark, that someone had broken into the house and she was yelling for help, but he felt his muscles relax when he saw her at the top of the stairs, her smile like sunshine.

"What's up, princess?" he sighed in relief, hearing Scott do the same to his right.

"Come see what I did! You too, Uncle Scott!" she exclaimed, her eyes shining bright and her pigtails bouncing along to the beat of her knees.

That sounded vaguely ominous, but seeing as he hadn't received any texts from Isaac or Derek with the word 'catastrophe', he assumed everything was fine and obliged with her request, walking up the stairs with Scott at his heels.

She wrapped her tiny hands around his wrist when he reached the top, dragging him down the hallway to her enchanted forest themed bedroom. Derek and Isaac sat cross legged on the floor, their legs stretched out in front of them, each holding what looked to be a paper heart. They looked up when Scott, Stiles, and Savannah entered, their eyes shining as though they were trying not to cry.

'What's going on?' Stiles mouthed to them, still completely confused.

Before they could respond, Savannah was tugging on Stiles's arm again, urging him to look down.

"Daddy, look what I made!"

He glanced down to see what she was attempting to shove into his face: a large heart cut out of red paper, decorated with small sticker hearts of varying sizes and colors. Blinking slowly, he reached to take the heart from his daughter, squatting down to her level as he read the words scribbled in the middle with black marker in her big, messy handwriting.

_Daddy,_

_You are the bestest daddy in the whole world._

_Will you be my valentine?_

_I love you,_

_Savannah_

Eyes watery and lips parted in shock, he raised his gaze to meet his daughter's, unsure of what to say because he felt as though his heart was about to burst.

"Savannah, this is…" his words came out in a whisper as he stared at her in awe, his eyes momentarily lifting to see his friends attempting not to cry as they held their own versions of the handmade valentines. Looking back at her, he reached out and pulled her into an embrace against his chest, squeezing her as tight as he could without worrying about breaking her tiny body. "This is amazing."

"You like it?" she squeaked when he pulled away, her eyes wide in excitement, her gaze slowly drifting to each of her uncles as her words began to come out faster and faster. "You said that today we show people we love them and I love you so I wanted to show you. Miss Amy helped me write it. Do you like it?"

"I love it," Scott croaked, reaching a hand up to wipe a stray tear from his eye. "Thank you, Savi."

Derek and Isaac echoed his appreciation, both looking as though they might start bawling at any given moment.

Despite the high level of emotion in the room, Savannah seemed disappointed by their reactions. Jutting out her bottom lip, she planted her balled fists on her waist. "But you didn't answer me!"

It took Stiles a moment to figure out what she was talking about, but when he did, he let out a watery laugh and scooped her into his arms, pressing kisses against her cheek to make her giggle. "Of course, Savi. Of course we'll be your valentines."

Laughing in understanding, the boys pushed themselves to their feet to join in a group hug, which had all of them smiling idiotically when they pulled apart.

"Alright," Scott laughed, sniffling slightly. "I should go get ready for my date."

"Can I help?" Savannah asked brightly, already trying to wriggle out of her father's arms.

Grinning, Scott nodded, pulling her against his chest and pressing a kiss to her cheek before they walked out the door.

For the next hour, Savannah toddled around the house, helping her uncles get ready for their various evening activities. She worked her little fingers into Scott's hair, playing with it until it looked effortlessly tousled. She advised Derek on which color shirt to wear and picked out Isaac's boots for him, choosing the ones that were shiniest. Despite his protests that he wasn't trying to make an impression, he couldn't say no to her stern glare.

"You look very pretty," she said with a satisfied smile as she sat between her father's outstretched legs on the bottom step, watching her uncles shrug on their respective jackets and blazers.

"Thanks, Sav!" Isaac grinned, running a hand through his hair.

Taking turns, they accepted good luck kisses from their niece before waving goodbye and heading out the door.

"What do you say, pretty girl?" Stiles said to his daughter once they were alone, smiling when she turned her neck to face him. "Can I cook you some dinner?"

She nodded excitedly and he placed his hands beneath her shoulders to lift to her to her feet before following as she raced towards the kitchen, where they set out to cook their Valentine's meal of quesadillas and frozen French fries.

Parenthood hadn't made Stiles any better of a cook, seeing as he still often called Melissa for tips on easy recipes, but he had become more resourceful and could now cook the simplest versions of most foods. He let her sprinkle her own cheese on the tortillas in the pan and use mitts that were much too big for her hands to guide the tray of fries from the oven.

As they ate, Savannah sipped apple juice from her favorite plastic purple cup and told Stiles about the new puppy her friend Aubrey had just got and made him laugh with the knock knock jokes her Uncle Isaac had told her the other day and not for the first time, Stiles was overwhelmed with the sense that this was exactly the way his life was supposed to turn out.

She helped him wash up after dinner, standing on a plastic stool in front of the sink and splashing water at him, giggling when she managed to hit him the face. Then, they settled down on the couch to watch _The Little Mermaid, _Savannah tucked beneath Stiles's arm until it was time for her to go to bed.

They were at the part where Ariel first got her legs when the front door opened and Isaac entered. Raising his eyebrows in surprise, Stiles checked the time, noting that it was still pretty early for his friend to be back from whatever plans he had.

"Hey," Stiles greeted as Isaac collapsed in the chair to his left, stretching out his legs and kicking off his shoes. "Did it go alright?"

"Yeah," he shrugged. "We actually talked for a while, but I wasn't really feeling anything else, so I left."

"That's ok!" Savannah piped up before Stiles could comment on how unlike Isaac it was to say no to a hook up. "You can watch with us! It's at the best part!"

Laughing, Isaac nodded, turning his attention to the screen and becoming engrossed in the movie, singing the songs along with Savannah.

Scott came back next, humming happily as he plopped down next to Stiles on the couch, mentioning that it had been a great night but he didn't want things to move too fast, so he'd come home instead of staying over. By the time Derek returned, King Triton had made a rainbow in the sky and Savannah was fighting hard to keep her eyes open.

"What are you still doing awake, Miss Savannah?" Derek laughed, crouching down in front of the couch and placing a hand over her ankles. "It's way past your bedtime."

Stiles had been so invested in the movie and Savannah's reenacting of the songs that he hadn't really noticed the time passing, figuring she'd nod off when she could no longer stand to stay awake and he'd carry her up to bed.

"I had to stay awake," she said, her voice labored with sleep and her little eyelids blinking rapidly as she snuggled closer to Stiles's side.

"Why?" Derek tilted his head to the side, Scott and Isaac looking interested in the response as well.

"To say g'night to my valentines."

None of them could help the ridiculous smiles that stretched their lips and they lifted themselves to their feet so they could take turns kissing the top of her head as she drifted off to sleep, murmuring a soft 'love you' before sleep overcame her completely.

The boys went to their rooms with smiles plastered on their faces and Stiles lifted his daughter to his chest to carry her to her room, brushing back her hair and pressing a kiss to her forehead as he lay her down, whispering to her before he turned on her nightlight and closed the door.

"Goodnight my valentine. I love you."


	5. Chapter 5

Something was on her mind.

He could tell because she said almost nothing at breakfast. Generally, Savannah was the personification of sunshine, even in the early hours, so when Stiles walked into the kitchen to find her eating her Cheerios and her greeting had been nothing more than a grunt and a nod in his direction, he became immediately worried.

They ate breakfast in silence, which never happened, before she excused herself from the table to get ready for school. His brow furrowed as he washed out his bowl and tea cup, thinking that after fifteen years of being a parent, he really should be better at handling these situations. As the youngest member of True Alpha, no one expected him to be the first to have kids, so when he announced to the world that he had a daughter, there were a lot of murmurings of people doubting his parenting abilities, so he did his best to give the illusion that it came naturally.

But the truth was that he was sort of figuring it out as he went along. He had been thrust into fatherhood so unexpectedly that he didn't really have time to prepare how he would handle difficult situations. Luckily, Savannah had turned out to be a blessing of a child who hardly ever complained. Being raised by her father and three uncles meant she'd learned to be self-sufficient when it came to things that they knew nothing about.

However, Stiles didn't want her to think that she couldn't always be completely open and honest with him, that he wouldn't always love her unconditionally. He had dated on and off while she was growing up, but none of his relationships seemed to make it past three months and eventually he stopped looking because he knew that the only girl who would ever truly hold his heart was his daughter. The other boys had all found their soulmates, moved out and settled down and started their own families, and Stiles still had Savannah, the only soulmate he would ever need.

She came downstairs ten minutes later, her chocolate curls tamed and slicked back into a bun on top of her head as usual. She so often went from school straight to ballet that she didn't think it made sense to switch hairstyles in between and sometimes even went so far as to wear pink tights and her leotard beneath her school uniform.

Head held high and spine straight, just like Miss Belinda had taught her, she called out to him from the bottom of the stairs. "Dad, can we go? I'm gonna be late for school."

"Yeah, coming." He cleared his throat to keep his voice from cracking before slipping on his shoes, grabbing his keys and wallet, and following out to his trusty blue Jeep that he'd managed to maintain throughout the years, awed at the way she always seemed to look as though she was walking on air. He thought it was hilarious that his daughter had turned out to be so graceful. Much like her, at fifteen, he'd been all long lanky limbs, but he'd often find himself tripping over his own feet. Savannah, however, never stumbled.

They drove in silence for about five minutes, another strange occurrence, until Stiles could no longer stand the silence. He decided to break the tension by starting a casual conversation.

"Busy day ahead?"

She shrugged, staring out the window, her fingers playing with the pearl earring poked through her right ear, the only jewelry she ever wore. "Pretty normal. No exams or homework due and I have ballet after school."

"How's that going?" Perhaps her mood was dance related.

She brightened slightly at the mention of her passion, turning her head to look at him, the corners of her lips turned upwards into a smile. "Really good, actually. I finally got up to five _fouettes_.

Amazingly, he actually knew what that meant.

Ballet had started out as a hobby for Savannah, a way for her to release her abundant amount of energy. However, she had fallen in love with it, so Stiles had learned to fall in love as well. He couldn't count the number of hours he'd spent on the internet after she'd fallen asleep, researching dancers and positions and steps and now, if you asked, he could probably tell you the names of every prima ballerina who'd ever danced in _Swan Lake_ with relative ease.

He'd been terrified when she'd first mentioned wanting to get more serious because he'd heard that ballet was actually extremely dangerous. But she always looked so happy when she was dancing and Savannah being happy was all that mattered to him in the world, so he'd learned to cross his fingers for good luck while she performed and ice her feet when she got blisters from her pointe shoes.

"That's awesome," he grinned. "Congrats, sweetie."

She seemed to be a little looser, her natural radiance returning to her cheeks as she chewed on her bottom lip as though she had something else to say. He didn't say anything, knowing that she was on the verge of speaking. "Dad…I wanna talk to you about something."

"What's up?" He let out a small sigh of relief, glad that she was getting whatever was on her mind out in the open.

"So you know how the Spring Fling is this Saturday…" He vaguely recalled getting an email about the dance from her school, asking for parents to chaperone. He'd ignored it at the time because Savannah never seemed extremely interested in school events. Despite the fact that she spent half her life dancing, if it didn't involve a leotard, it didn't catch her fancy. "Well….Toby Upwright asked me to go with him."

Eyes wide, Stiles's fingers tightened around the steering wheel and he stopped breathing as he found himself at a complete loss for words. He knew he'd have to deal with his daughter's love life at some point, but he always figured he'd have some sort of warning. Like he'd notice that she was starting to like boys before she out of the blue told him that she wanted to go on a date.

"Toby…Upwright." He repeated the name slowly, storing it in his memory for later use as he pulled the car to a stop in front of her school. "He's a friend of yours?"

"Sort of." Her cheeks reddened profusely and he felt his heart stop beating as she gathered her book bag and pushed open the car door. "I guess we can talk more about it tonight."

"Yeah," he breathed out, watching her climb out of the car. "Let's do that."

…

"Who the fuck is Toby Upright?"

"I have no idea," Stiles let out in an exasperated sigh as an answer to Isaac's question. "All she said was that he asked her to the dance and they're 'sort of' friends."

"Sort of?" Scott wrinkled his nose and frowned. "What does that mean?"

"I don't know," Stiles admitted again. "We didn't really have time to talk about it."

"Wait, guys, I got this," Derek called out, slipping his phone from the pocket of his jeans and quickly going to work.

"What are you doing?" Isaac asked, furrowing his thick brow.

"Finding his Facebook page," Derek replied, as though it was the most obvious answer in the world.

Stiles scrunched up his nose in disgust, a little irked by the idea of cyber stalking a boy he didn't even know. "Is that really necessary?"

They were currently at Isaac's house, sitting in the basement he'd converted into an at home studio. Despite the fact that the boys no longer lived together, they were still heavily involved in each other's personal lives, stepping in to help with each other's children whenever need be. And because Savannah was the one who'd turned them all from boys to men, she held a special place in their hearts, which meant they were just concerned about this dance as Stiles. Apparently, the best idea they had for handling said situation was to become complete creeps.

"Don't act like you're not dying to know more about this kid," Derek rolled his eyes, his expression brightening when he found the appropriate web page. "Here, I found him."

The knot in Stiles's stomach was telling him that it was a complete invasion of privacy to look, but he couldn't help himself, so he sat down next to Derek on the couch and peered over his friend's shoulder at the phone screen, noting that Scott and Isaac were doing the same.

"Toby Upright…" Derek muttered, reading off the screen as he used his thumb to scroll down the page. "Seventeen…captain of the swim team…looks like he surfs as well."

"Wait, seventeen?" Isaac interrupted, his eyes wide. "He's two years older than her."

"At least he's not like a fully grown adult," Stiles offered weakly, doing his best to see the positive side to the situation. Though he'd felt his jaw clench as soon as Derek said 'seventeen' as well.

"Ok, but don't you remember when you were seventeen?" Derek cut in, looking at Stiles pointedly.

Of course he did. He was seventeen the year the band did their first headline tour in another country. It was such an exciting time of his life, where everything was new and he was playing shows in cities he'd never heard of and flying to countries he'd only dreamed about.

But Derek was talking about the fact that they'd been pretty promiscuous while on the road. Never spending more than one day in the same city certainly had is advantages.

Looking back, Stiles felt bubbles of guilt in the pit of his stomach as he realized how careless he might have been with the emotions of some of the girls whose company he enjoyed. The thought of anyone treating Savannah that way made his blood boil.

"Shit," he muttered, looking to his friends for advice. "What do I do?"

When the world had first found out about his daughter, he'd often been asked how he would handle it when she started dating. At the time, it was so new that he wasn't really thinking that far ahead, so he made the typical jokes about locking her in a tower until she was thirty. Now that he had a few years of parenting under his belt, he knew it was irrational to think that she was never going to grow up. But that didn't meant it made his heart ache any less.

"Bro," Scott said calmly, always the voice of reason. "I think you're overreacting just a bit. He asked her to a dance, he didn't propose marriage."

He was right, of course. Stiles's mind had automatically gone to extremes and he immediately felt guilty, especially since Savannah had trusted him enough to bring it up herself in the first place.

"Ok, so…I should let her go, right?"

He could tell they all wanted to protest, even Scott who was probably the most reasonable. Savannah would always be Stiles's baby girl, but they all loved her like a daughter and would do anything in their power to protect her, especially from the one track minds of teenage boys.

"I think you should probably talk to her about it," Scott advised.

"And let her know that if he hurts her, we'll gladly kick his ass," Isaac piped up.

…

She was full of energy when she came home, as she always was after ballet. Bounding through the front door, she turned to raise her hand in a thankful wave to the friend who'd given her a ride before twirling into the lounge room, where Stiles sitting on the floor with his legs spread in front of him, stumped on writing the lyrics for the chorus of a song.

"Hey!" His face brightened as it always did in her presence. He loved seeing her when she came back from dance because she always looked insanely happy. It was rigorous and exhausting, but she loved it, so Stiles loved it too. "How was your day?"

"Awesome!" she sang, dropping her book bag and plopping down beside him. Resting her chin on his shoulder, she peered down at the songbook between his knees. It was a leather bound notebook that he'd had since he was sixteen and although it was beaten up and scratched and scribbled all over, it was the only one he ever wanted to use, so he'd gotten into the habit of pasting in extra pages whenever he ran out. "Whatcha working on?"

"New song." Reaching up, he wiggled her topknot, smiling as he remembered being so proud the first time he and the boys successfully tied her little ballerina bun. "I'm a little blocked, though."

"You'll get it," she shrugged, turning her head to kiss him on the cheek. "You always do." Stiles would always be her hero. "Grandpa called me after school. Said he has all sorts of fun stuff planned for us when you're gone."

"Does she now?" Stiles laughed, raising his eyebrows. In one month, the boys were flying to London to begin the recording process for their new album. Now that Savannah was in school and couldn't travel as freely, she stayed with his father while he was away. He always made sure to book her tickets to come see him on tour when she had breaks, though, because he missed her constantly while he was on the road.

"Mhmmm," she hummed, her eyes sparking with that mischievous fire that made him feel warm.

"Hey," he said softly, deciding that perhaps the best way to have the conversation they needed to have to just dive right in. "About this dance…"

Her eyes widened nervously and twisted her fingers together in her lap, but he could tell she appreciated that he brought it up first. "Yes?"

"I was thinking that maybe I could pick you up from dance tomorrow and we could go buy you a new dress."

"Really?!" she squealed, throwing her skinny arms around his neck and hugging him close. "Thankyouthankyouthankyou."

"And this boy…"

He'd been at war with himself all day on how to handle the whole Savannah having a date situation. In his head, she would always be his little girl; the one who woke him up in the morning by bouncing on his bed and fearlessly ran into the waves at the beach, despite his worried screaming, and asked him to be her valentine every year by presenting him with a handmade card of paper hearts that she'd crafted at school.

But one thing Stiles always strove for was to become a better parent. So even though he might never want her to grow up, he knew that letting go was a key part of his parental responsibility.

"He's really cool, Dad, I promise," she gushed, turning to face him and sitting back on her heels, her expression lighting with joy as she spoke. "He's so smart and funny and like everything he says makes me laugh and I think he might really like me."

She cast her eyes downwards, blushing furiously and he felt as though someone was squeezing his heart tightly in their fist. It dawned on him that it was the first time her face had ever lit with excitement when she was talking about someone of the opposite sex who wasn't him or her uncles and that realization was absolutely terrifying.

"T-That's good," he managed to sputter out, shutting his song book and placing his pen down on top. Taking a deep breath, he set his expression into what he hoped was a sincere smile. "I'm happy for you, Sav."

She grinned, leaning in to hug him again.

"You should know, though," he said when they pulled apart. "If he makes you cry, I'm giving the boys full permission to hunt him down and beat his ass."

"Noted," she laughed, her eyes crinkling as she smiled. "But you don't have to worry about that, Dad. If he makes me cry, I'll beat his ass myself."

Beaming proudly, he pressed his lips to her forehead and pulled her into his side, his hand lovingly brushing back the baby hairs from her forehead towards her bun. "That's my girl."

…

Later that night, he sat up in bed, legs stretched out beneath the covers as he crunched down on a bowl of Cheerios and watched reruns of _How I Met Your Mother_, his before bed ritual.

He and Savannah used to watch the show together all the time as she was growing up, especially on nights when she had trouble sleeping. Those were some of his favorite memories; his daughter tucked beneath his arm so he could feel her laughter vibrating through his body.

One night, when she was fourteen, she'd asked him the question the kids on the show hadn't posed. "Dad, how did you meet her?"

Savannah had never really been sure what to call the woman that gave birth to her. In her mind, she couldn't consider her a mother when she hadn't even raised her own daughter. And although sometimes Savannah did wonder if she had her mother's nose and horrible handwriting, she figured it didn't really matter that she didn't have a mother seeing as she had the best dad and best father figures she could ask for.

Stiles had a strict policy of not lying to his daughter, so he told her the truth about the club and the dancing and how it had turned into something more, leaving out the graphic details. Her curiosity was satisfied by the story and he was surprised when she didn't ask for any more details, instead shooting him an entirely different question.

"How come you don't date?"

It was something he ever thought his daughter would ask, so he didn't know how to answer. He'd gone on dates when she was younger and it was general knowledge that he had a daughter, so that was never a deal breaker, but the truth was that he was constantly worrying about her to the point where the women could tell he wasn't entirely invested in their interaction. Eventually, he started turning down all of Scott's offers to set him up, deciding that he was perfectly content with the girl he did have in his life.

"Women don't like me."

"That's bullshit," she rolled her eyes. He shot her a quick glare for her word choice, but decided against calling her out. He probably should have laid down a no swearing rule a long time ago, but he often slipped up himself. Besides, considering who she was raised with, it was practically a miracle that her first word wasn't a curse. "You're the drummer in a band, Dad. That's the kind of thing women fantasize about."

"But that's usually all it ever is," he pointed out. "A fantasy. Besides, why do I need other girls when I got you?"

"Eventually, I'm going to have to move out."

He'd blocked that thought from his mind; some things were better to deal with as they came.

"I know," he sighed.

"I just don't want you to be lonely when I'm not here."

That was heartbreaking thought, but he also knew he'd never really be alone, not as long as he had her and the boys. He liked to think he'd always be connected to her, no matter where she was, that their father/daughter bond could conquer all.

Which is why, when his bedroom door creaked open, he sat up straight in bed, calling out. "Everything alright, baby?"

It was his reactionary response to these types of situations and when Savannah stepped into the room, he had flashbacks to when she'd show up at the foot of his bed with her stuffed bunny clutched to her chest, wanting to sleep beside him because she'd had a nightmare.

"Yeah," she said quietly, tugging at the end of the loose braid she wore her hair in while she slept. "I was just wondering…can you teach me to dance?"

Of all the questions Savannah had ever asked him, that was certainly the strangest. Seeing as she was quite an excellent dancer, it seemed unnatural for her to be asking him, whose specialty was the awkward robot because despite being musically inclined, he lacked all sense of rhythm, for lessons.

"Not like dance, dance," she corrected herself at his completely befuddled expression. "Slow dance. I've just…I've never slow danced with a guy before and I don't want to mess it up."

Smiling softly, he nodded and set down his bowl of Cheerios, pushing back his covers and going to meet her at the side of the room.

"I'm gonna be honest," he said, placing one hand at her waist and wrapping the fingers of the other around her palm. "It's been a while since I've done this and I'm not very good."

Growing up with just his dad meant he didn't get a lot of opportunities to slow dance and it wasn't as though the other boys were particularly adept in that area either.

She shrugged, smiling up at him encouragingly as she placed her free hand on his shoulder. "It's ok. You're a good teacher."

Grinning, he glanced down at his feet, taking a deep breath before they began to sway from side to side.

…

Saturday night, Stiles found himself casually lounging on Savannah's bed, his legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles and his hands tucked behind his head. She was in the bathroom, wrapped up in a large white towel as she carefully did her hair and makeup in the mirror, every now and then engaging in conversation with Stiles through the open door.

As promised, he'd taken her dress shopping after her ballet class on Wednesday. They'd gone to every department store in the shopping center and Stiles had trailed behind her, nearly buried under a pile of dresses that she'd picked from various racks. He'd sat in the waiting area of the dressing room, vaguely paying attention to the sales clerk who was telling him the difference between A-line and high-low skirts as Savannah tried on dress after dress before finding one she loved.

He'd offered to pay for her to get her hair and makeup done because he sensed that the dance was going to be a big night for her, but she'd refused, coyly smiling and saying that she'd had years of practice doing it herself. He'd laughed as he remembered how she'd often been made to look like a mini clown by him and her uncles attempting to do her stage makeup. At the age of eight, she told them that she could do it herself and had since then perfected the practice.

"Are you guys getting food?" he asked, uncrossing his black Converse covered feet and wiggling them up and down.

"Yeah," Savannah replied, her bottom lip between her teeth in concentration as she expertly held the curling iron to her head. "I think he's taking me to that new Thai restaurant by school."

"Nice!" He tried to sound as positive as possible, but in reality, he was having heart palpitations at the thought of his little girl alone in a car with a teenage boy. He had way too much knowledge of the seductive powers of backseats to be comfortable with the idea. "Should be fun."

"I'm excited," she grinned, turning her head to face him and showing off her already made up face.

The ringing of the doorbell caught their attention and Stiles swung his legs of the bed and stood up straight, brushing off his jeans. "Looks like your date is here."

Savannah furrowed her brow and picked up her phone with her free hand to check the time. "He's early. Can you keep him entertained? My hair will take like ten more minutes."

Trying not to smirk at the thought of how much intimidation could be wrought in ten minutes, Stiles nodded and headed out into the hallway.

"Be nice!" she called out after him, a plea to which he didn't respond.

He pulled open the door, fully prepared to give this Toby his most stern look, but found his eyebrows shooting up in surprise when Derek was on the other side.

"Hey, man," Stiles said, automatically stepping aside to allow his friend to enter. "What are you doing here?"

"I was in the neighborhood," Derek shrugged, sounding very unconvincing.

Stiles narrowed his gaze, lips parted to continue his line of questioning, but was interrupted when Scott and Isaac appeared at the door within the next two minutes.

"Seriously, guys?" Stiles laughed, shaking his head as he closed the door, grateful as always for his amazing friends. "Is this necessary?"

"It's her first date," Scott shrugged, completely unembarrassed by the fact that all of them had showed up to wish her well. "It's a big deal."

The doorbell rang again and all of their heads whipped around, staring as though they'd developed x-ray vision.

"Speaking of her date…" Stiles muttered, stepping forward to open the door.

On the other side, Toby Upwright stood looking tall, dark, handsome, and very nervous as he held a corsage in his right hand.

"Hello, sir," Toby greeted Stiles, his eyes momentarily glancing in confusion to the abundance of men in the house. "I'm Toby. It's an honor to meet you."

Stiles took politeness very seriously, so he figured the introduction was a tick in the pro column and stuck out his hand, stretching his lips into a smile that he hoped looked friendly. "Stiles. Nice to meet you too. Come on in."

Toby shook Stiles's hand firmly before stepping inside, gulping as he watched Scott cross his arms over his chest to cause the biceps he'd developed from years of aggressive guitar playing to bulge out. Derek and Isaac used their superior height to their advantage, standing up as straight as possible to make themselves look huge.

"These are Savannah's uncles," Stiles explained, gesturing to his band mates and trying not to laugh at their intimidation tactics. "Scott, Derek, and Isaac."

"Honored," Toby nodded, clearly racking his brain for something else to say.

He was saved from having to make conversation by a cough coming from the top of the stairs and the five of them turned to see Savannah descending slowly, looking absolutely stunning in her navy spaghetti strap dress with the beaded bodice and an angelic smile on her face.

"Look at you," Scott beamed when she reached the bottom, holding his hands to her shoulders. "Amazing."

"Thanks, Uncle Scott," she grinned, not at all surprised that he was there, and accepted a kiss on the forehead. She turned to receive similar compliments from Isaac and Derek before coming to a stop in front of Stiles, suddenly looking nervous as she dug her silver pumps into the hardwood floor. "Do I look ok, daddy?"

"Beautiful," he whispered, blinking back tears as he cupped her cheeks in his palms. "You look beautiful."

She smiled as she wrapped her arms around him and he held her close, trying to memorize the feeling of her embrace. He always thought she was beautiful, but he'd never seen her look more grown up. For the first time, he realized that his baby girl was practically a woman and he wondered how it had happened so quickly. Before he knew it, she would be moved out and married with a family of her own and he wasn't quite ready for that to happen yet.

So he breathed in her scent and kissed the top of her head before letting her go, shooting Savannah and Toby a watery smile. "You two have fun, alright?"

Toby smiled gratefully before extending his elbow to Savannah and walking her out the door, with Isaac calling out, "Not too much fun!" before they reached the car.

"She grew up so fast," Stiles whispered, watching as Toby held the car door open for Savannah and let her slip inside before walking around to the driver's side.

"This is only the beginning, man," Derek commented, raising a hand in a wave as the car pulled away. "Pretty sure she'll be doodling his name in her notebooks and daydreaming about their future children."

"Did you really have to say that?" Isaac scolded, smacking Derek's chest and furrowing his brow disapprovingly.

Stiles rolled his eyes as he closed the door and the boys wandered into the lounge room to hang out, deciding that when it came to his daughter, it was best to stick to his original plan of taking things as they came.


	6. Chapter 6

Reaching easily up to the top shelf, he grabbed a box of heart healthy Cheerios and tossed them into his half full shopping cart, earning him an eye roll from Scott.

Derek and Isaac were currently in a session with a producer that Scott and Stiles would be meeting with the next day, so the lead singer and the drummer had the day off. Stiles had decided to spend his free time by running errands and Scott had a couple hours to kill before he had to go pick his kids up from school, so he was tagging along, being unhelpful as he watched his best friend pick up the necessary items to restock his fridge and pantry.

"You gotta expand your horizons, mate," Scott scolded, picking out a box of Fruit Loops and adding it to the cart as well, finding Stiles's lack of range when it came to breakfast food a little strange.

Shooting his friend a glare, Stiles retrieved the sugary cereal from the cart and placed it back on the shelf. "No one's gonna eat it, bro. Savannah doesn't like those either."

Scott deadpanned, pulling down the sides of his gray knit beanie, the sleeve of his hoodie falling down his arm to partially reveal the sleeve of tattoos he'd amassed over the years. "Are you really trying to tell me that your teenage daughter doesn't like sugary cereal?"

Stiles shrugged, resting his weight on the handle of the cart so he could continue to push it down the aisle. "It makes her too jittery before dance."

He remembered he'd once fed her frosted Poptarts before taking her to a Saturday dance lesson and she'd been bouncing off the walls the entire time. Using his forearm to steer, he directed the cart to the left, wincing at the memory of Savannah's ballet instructor scolding him when he came to pick her up and turning out of the cereal aisle into the snack aisle, Scott walking leisurely by his side, hands shoved into the pockets of his hoodie.

Supermarkets were Stiles's favorite place to unwind. There was something so relaxing about pushing the cart slowly through the aisles and scanning his gaze over the myriad of food options and brightly colored packaging. He so often second guessed his decisions in his professional life for fear of criticism or uproar that it was nice to make a decision as simple as which kind of sliced meat to buy without worry that it would upset a few thousand people.

Things were beginning to pick back up again. They'd just finished the last of their recording for their next album, which meant final decisions about track listings and cover art were being made. Soon enough, they'd be heading out on tour again, and although Stiles was ecstatic to have the opportunity to travel the world and perform to fans with his three best friends because it was only while he had drumsticks in hand that he had any idea what he was doing, as it had become in the recent years, leaving home would be bittersweet. Now that Savannah was in school and so invested in ballet, he couldn't possibly take her on the road, so she spent the months that he was touring at his parents' house, receiving phone calls, text messages, and requests for video chats from her perpetually worried father every day. He didn't want his sixteen year old to have any doubts that she was always on his mind.

Sometimes he wondered how time had gone by so fast. It seemed like just yesterday that he'd been nervously pacing in his London hotel room with her spit up all over his favorite leather jacket, desperately trying to figure out why she wouldn't stop crying. Before he knew it, he would blink and she would be married with a kid of her own and that thought was terrifying.

He chewed on his lip as his eyes scanned over the various packaged cookie options, his brow furrowing in confusion when he heard a soft thud and looked to his right to see Scott lowering a box of Vanilla Wafers into the cart.

"I don't want those," Stiles frowned, not for the first time wondering why he'd allowed his best friend to come along on this shopping trip. Scott had showed up on his doorstep as he was leaving to go get his dry cleaning that morning, claiming that he had no idea what to do with his free time, so Stiles had been happy to accept the company while he ran errands. Now he was starting to think that wasn't such a good idea, because although Scott was always entertaining, he was nothing short of distracting.

"They're for me," Scott replied with an innocent shrug, putting his large puppy dog eyes to good use. "I'll pay you back later."

Stiles rolled his own eyes. "Can you make yourself useful? Can you go get some juice boxes? Savannah likes the fruit punch flavor."

Shooting the drummer his 'you know you love me' smirk, Scott did as he was asked, walking towards the end of the aisle, where the boxed juices were on display while Stiles turned his attention back to his cookie finding mission.

"Fruit punch is a good choice."

He'd been so enraptured in making a pro and con list of Chips Ahoy versus Oreos that he hadn't heard anyone approach and raised his eyebrows in surprise as he looked to the side to see a young woman smiling at him. "Sorry?"

"My son likes the fruit punch as well," she explained, her smile widening. "It's his favorite after school drink."

"Yeah, my daughter likes it with her lunch," he replied with a nod. Sugar at lunch time tended to wear off by the time she had to go to ballet after school, so he always made sure to buy extra juice boxes for the sack lunch she packed each morning.

"How old is yours?" the woman brightened, excited that he hadn't shied away from conversation.

Despite being in his mid-thirties, Stiles was genetically blessed to look about ten years younger, so when he said, "Sixteen," the look of absolute shock on the woman's face was priceless.

"Oh," she whispered, her eyes wide.

"Yeah," Stiles chuckled softly, figuring she probably had no desire to continue their conversation any longer. Reaching out, he pulled a box of Oreos off the shelf and shot her a friendly smile. "If you want a recommendation, the Double Stuffed kind are the best."

Before she could respond, he turned and continued to push his cart down the aisle to where Scott was waiting, arms laden with boxes of fruit punch.

"You know," Scott sighed when Stiles came to a stop beside him, dropping the juice into the cart. "When I said expand your horizons, I wasn't just talking about breakfast food."

"I would ask you to explain, but I know you're going to anyway," Stiles replied, pushing the cart towards the cashiers.

"Don't you think it's time you got back out there? Started dating again?" Scott shoved his hands into the pockets of his hoodie, staring at Stiles pointedly as they came to a stop at the end of the surprisingly long checkout line, considering it was the middle of the afternoon.

"You're forgetting, bro," Stiles responded. "I was never 'out there' in the first place."

It was a strange statement to make, but a true one nonetheless. He'd had girlfriends as a teenager, but once the band started getting successful, dating took a back seat. Besides, it was too difficult to maintain any sort of stable relationship while he was on tour. And then Savannah came into his life and all his priorities changed. Being in a relationship was the last thing on his mind as he navigated his way through the ups and downs of parenthood.

"Ok," Scott shrugged. "So then it's time to start. I hate to break it to you, but sooner or later, Savannah's gonna move out and I'm not always gonna be around to cuddle. My wife does like me to come home some nights."

Stiles rolled his eyes but didn't respond as he scooted the cart up and began unloading his groceries on the small conveyer belt. He didn't want to admit to his best friend that the reason he didn't want to start dating again wasn't because he was scared, it was because the last time he tried, whether or not it was reasonable, he'd ended up feeling extremely guilty.

_He stood in front of his bathroom mirror, tugging his fingers through his hair, unable to get it the right amount of quiffed. Squinting his eyes, he turned the corners of his lips downwards into a frown, wondering if perhaps he should just leave it flat when Savannah skipped into his room, her trusty stuffed bunny clutched in her hand. She came to a stop beside him, holding up her arms expectantly and Stiles laughed as he gripped the five year old by the hips and lifted her to set her atop the marble bathroom counter, where she hugged her stuffed animal to her chest and swung her legs happily._

_"__You look very beautiful, Daddy," she smiled as she watched him rake his fingers through his hair for the millionth time._

_"__Thank you, baby," Stiles grinned, leaning down to press an affectionate kiss to the top of her head before deciding there really wasn't anything else he could do to make his hair look better and switching to straightening the collar of his navy blue button up. "Are you excited to hang out with your Uncle Derek and Uncle Isaac tonight?"_

_It took about a week of convincing, but Scott and his long term girlfriend had persuaded Stiles to come on a double date with them and a good friend of theirs, saying it had been much too long since the drummer had been out on the town. Thus, Isaac and Derek were on babysitting duty for the night, which meant it was quite possible that Savannah would spend the evening playing with her toys and coloring while Isaac and Derek played video games._

_"__Yeah!" Savannah exclaimed, obviously not having the same worries of the possibility of an extremely boring night. Swaying back and forth slightly on the counter, she cocked her head to the side. "Where are you going?"_

_This wasn't the first time he was leaving her in the care of her uncles – every so often, the boys would insist that Stiles needed to stop being so clingy and force him to go to a movie or even go out and run errands while he left Savannah at home. She didn't mind because she absolutely adored her uncles, but she always asked where Stiles was going because she liked to know that he would come back, so he always answered truthfully._

_This time, however, the truth might require a bit more explanation._

_"__Your Uncle Scott and I are going on a double date," he replied, knowing full well that she had no idea what the words double date meant._

_And sure enough, her next question was, "What's that mean?"_

_She'd helped her uncles get ready for many a date without realizing it, but she was so excited at playing dress up that she never asked what the end result was for. But now that it was her father who was dressing up, her curiosity was piqued._

_"__A date," he said slowly, trying to figure out the best way to phrase the sentence while thinking that he should have had a few more years before he had to do so, "is when two grownups go out together and try to get to know each other better."_

_"__How come?"_

_He should have been expecting that question, but it still made his stomach tighten into knots. Clearing his throat, he reached for her, heaving her into his arms so he could carry her into the bedroom and set her down atop the neatly folded navy comforter. Once she was successfully secure in the center of the bed, he began to pace, his still bare feet digging into the carpet._

_"__Ok, so you know how when you first meet someone, you don't really know anything about them?" Stiles started, continuing when Savannah nodded, but didn't speak. "And so when you want to get to know them, you spend more time with them. Like how you play with your friends. And you know they're your friends and you like them because you hang out a lot. Well, adults do that too. We go out on dates to see if we like people and want to hang out with them more. And that's why Uncle Scott and I are going out tonight."_

_"__To make friends?"_

_"__Yeah," Stiles sighed, massaging his forehead with his fingers because he was completely aware that he was failing miserably at making sense. "Yeah, kind of."_

_"__Ok," Savannah shrugged, stretching her lips into a wide, sunshiney smile. "Have fun!"_

_"__That's it?" Stiles blinked, gaping slightly. "You don't have any more questions?"_

_She shook her head and proceeded to play with her bunny and as Stiles wandered into the closet to find his black Converse, in the middle of a pile of shoes on the floor, wondering if she actually didn't care or he had just confused her to the point where she didn't want to talk about it anymore. If the date went well, then perhaps he would bring it up again later._

Scott rolled his eyes as Stiles recounted this story as they walked out of the supermarket. "All I got from that was that Savannah doesn't give a shit whether or not you date and you're making it more dramatic than it actually is."

He knew his best friend was right. The guilt he felt while he was out on dates stemmed from the fact that he never wanted Savannah to feel as though she wouldn't always be the most important girl in his life. So he figured it was just better not to test the results, and focused solely on raising his daughter. Besides, he knew so little about parenthood that she probably needed all of his attention anyway.

However, whether or not he was willing to admit it to himself, he knew Savannah wasn't going to be at home forever. She was sixteen already, which meant that in a few short years, she'd be out exploring the world and trying to have her own adventures; without him. At some point, he would have to let go and he'd put off thinking about that day for so long that it was now looming over him and he had no idea what would happen when it finally came.

"Will you just think about it?" Scott asked as Stiles dug his car keys from the pocket of his jeans and unlocked the door of the blue Jeep.

Stiles initial instinct was to say no, but he wasn't in the mood to get a lecture, so he just sighed and nodded. "Yeah, alright, I'll think about it."

"Cool," Scott grinned, reaching into the cart to begin loading the plastic bags full of groceries into the trunk of Stiles's car. "Do you and Sav wanna come over for dinner? It's spaghetti night."

"I can't," Stiles shook his head. "Savannah's school has a parent's evening tonight. I have to go meet her teachers and make sure she's doing ok and stuff."

"You sound thrilled about it," Scott smirked, noting the distinct lack of excitement in his friend's tone.

"I'm kinda nervous, to be honest," Stiles admitted, closing the trunk once all the groceries were inside. Scott waited for him to return the cart and come back to the car, both climbing inside before Stiles continued. "My dad went to all the other ones Savannah's had in high school because we weren't in town, and I'm not really sure what to expect. I know nothing about what happens at that school. They probably all think I'm a horrible father."

Scott rolled his eyes, which was becoming a theme of their interaction that day. "You're overthinking, bro. No one in their right mind could ever think you were a horrible father."

Chewing on his bottom lip as he pulled out of the parking lot and onto the road, Stiles hoped his friend was right, because sometimes, he wasn't so sure.

…

Smoothing down her black pencil skirt, Lydia took deep breaths as she paced back and forth in her empty classroom. Parent's evening had started about twenty minutes ago and the schedule stated that the hordes of students and adults would be set to arrive in her room within the next ten minutes.

The amount of preparation she had put into her presentation for the night didn't seem to calm her nerves. It was her third year teaching at the school, but with each new batch of students came a new set of concerns as to whether their parents thought she was doing a satisfactory job.

This was a prestigious private school, after all, with a reputation for academic excellence. And despite the fact that she had a few years of teaching experience before accepting a job here, she was still one of the younger faculty members and had raised quite a few eyebrows when she was brought in to teach geometry to the students in ninth grade. Since day one, she'd been working hard to prove that she was the best person for the job.

Reaching up to smooth back her strawberry blonde hair with her palms, she paused in the open doorway and furrowed her eyebrows in confusion at the sight of a man standing in the hallway, looking quite bewildered as he stared at a selection of trophies and medals in a glass case on the wall.

"Excuse me?" she called out, stepping into the hallway, her heels clacking against the tile floor. "Are you alright?"

He turned his head at the sound of her voice, his expression still one of complete confusion as he nodded. "Yeah, I just didn't know there were so many sports now days. Things sure have changed since I was in school."

He was quite tall, his thick dark hair worn messy and flat above his forehead, a small black ring piercing his ear and stunningly deep brown eyes. Shaking his head, he chuckled to himself as he continued. "Wow, that makes me sound really old, doesn't it?"

"Did you go here?" she asked, laughing and taking a step towards him, wondering what he was doing in the halls of a high school because he looked far too young to be the father of a teenager.

"No," he shook his head quickly, sticking his hands into the pockets of his dark wash jeans as he shuffled his feet until his entire body was facing her. "Well, not this specific school. I went to a high school for two years and then…"

"And then?" she raised her eyebrows, her curiosity peaked. He looked familiar, but she couldn't place how she would know him.

"And then things happened." He decided to be vague because he never really knew how to explain his life without it sounding completely ridiculous. Clearing his throat, he glanced behind her down the hallway, looking for signs of his daughter, who was supposed to meet him as soon as her ballet class ended. "I'm waiting for my daughter. Savannah."

Her eyebrows rose in surprise. "Savannah Stilinski? You're her father?"

It was finally clicking, why he looked so familiar. When she first started teaching, the gossip among the teachers was that one of the students had a celebrity for a father, and although she found this news fascinating, she hadn't dwelled on it much until Savannah ended up in her class and her last name struck a memory of a band Lydia used to love as a teenager and still frequently bought music from to this day.

Initially, Stiles had been worried that his name recognition would make things weird for Savannah at school, but it turned out that people being aware didn't mean they treated him or his daughter any differently, and for that, he was extremely grateful. As the band aged, so did their fans, and the chaos that used to surround them had calmed. Although they still maintained the same level of success, they were no longer mobbed at airports or any time they were out in public. Nowadays, his private life was pretty much under the radar and the only time when things seemed crazy was when the entire band was together on tour.

Removing a hand from his pocket, Stiles stuck it out in a polite gesture. "Stiles."

Stretching her lips into a warm smile, she returned the handshake and stated her name, "Lydia Martin," which earned her a spark of recognition from Stiles's eyes.

"Savannah's talked about you," he said, racking his brain, unable to call upon the correct memory.

"Has she?" Lydia blushed lightly, smiling because she was flattered that one of her students would have mentioned her to their parents. "I taught her last year. Geometry."

His eyes lit and he nodded excitedly as he remembered. "Yes, of course. She said you really helped her a lot and now she doesn't hate math quite as much."

He had been San Francisco when he heard the news. During one of the rare occasions when he got to video chat his daughter – they mostly texted because of the time differences, she had told him that she was struggling in geometry and was getting extra help from the teacher. Always one to self-blame, Stiles had immediately began wondering if perhaps his presence would have prevented that from happening, but was assured by his daughter that Lydia was the best tutor there was and she was learning quickly. She had said Lydia was patient and never made her feel like she was stupid and that she wasn't afraid to make mistakes around her because she knew she wouldn't make her feel bad about them and Stiles remembered thinking that he was glad there was someone out there who was taking such good care of his baby girl.

Savannah was a darling of a child, with her perpetually positive attitude and ability to hold a conversation at length with pretty much anybody. Although this did get her in trouble in class fairly often because she had the tendency to speak excitedly to her friends while Lydia was trying to speak, she admired Savannah's eagerness to learn. After she failed her first exam, she had shown up in Lydia's classroom and begged her to help and she'd agreed to after school tutoring sessions three times a week.

"That's good to hear," Lydia grinned, glad to know that her work was paying off. "She's quite an amazing girl."

Stiles's expression immediately softened, as it always did when someone complimented his daughter. Nodding slowly, he bit down on his lip and smiled. "She's pretty great, isn't she?"

Lydia had heard her fair share of whispers about Stiles, from teachers and parents alike. Some stated he must be doing something right, seeing as Savannah was fantastic, but others condemned him for never being around. He very rarely met with teachers or other parents, mostly because he was hardly in town or because when he was, he was too exhausted to do so, and some saw this lack of involvement in his daughter's school as a flaw in his parenting. And the fact that there didn't seem to be any maternal figure in Savannah's life was apparently Stiles's fault as well.

But Lydia didn't see it that way. Because she got all of her knowledge of Stiles from Savannah.

During their tutoring sessions, Savannah would gush about her father and her uncles and tell Lydia stories about the craziness that used to occur when they were all living in the same house. She'd talk about how Stiles would always take her for ice cream after every dance recital – but not strawberry, because she was allergic – and how even though he often spent months at a time on the other side of the world, she never really felt like he was gone because he always made sure to make himself present in his daughter's life.

People could gossip all they wanted, but Lydia could tell from the look on Savannah's face when she talked about Stiles that she absolutely loved her father and that was all she needed to know.

Their Savannah praising session came to an end when the subject of the conversation came sashaying down the hallway, her chocolate curls slicked back and twisted into a ballerina bun atop her head, a few flyaway hairs bouncing as she stuffed her car keys into the pocket of the small leather side bag she was carrying. She'd thrown a baggy sweater and simple skirt on over her leotard, having come straight from dance, but her pink tights still stuck out beneath her skirt, disappearing into her black flats.

Although she shot Lydia a friendly smile as she approached from behind Stiles, her gaze immediately switched to her father and spoke a little breathlessly as she extended an arm to hug his side and he habitually leaned down to kiss the top of her head. "Hey, Dad. Sorry I'm late."

"No problem, sweetie," Stiles replied, his happiness level rising because of his daughter's presence. "Miss Martin and I were just talking about you."

"About me?" her eyebrows shot up and she looked slightly worried.

"All the good stuff," Lydia assured her.

"Oh," Savannah sighed in relief, a mischievous grin lifting her lips as she glanced at her father. "That's good, because I know how much Dad likes to gossip."

Stiles felt his cheeks heat with a flush when he saw her eyebrows raise and her lips twist with the slightest smirk. Deciding it was better to own it than to become flustered, he shrugged and spoke with more confidence than he felt. "I like to stay in the loop."

"Does it make you feel young?" she teased, referring to a statement he'd made earlier in their conversation. She briefly wondered if she hadn't known him long enough to be making fun of him and although she pegged Stiles for the kind of guy who would have a good sense of humor, she was still relieved to see the corners of his lips lift into a small smile.

He liked that she felt so comfortable around him and that the sparkle of mischief in her eyes made him feel as though electricity was being shot through his veins and that her smile was bright enough to power an entire city. He bit down on his bottom lip and smirked as he replied. "Something like that."

She held his gaze for longer than was appropriate, feeling her heart rate increasing and the temperature rising and hoping he couldn't hear the blood pulsing through her veins, only breaking her hold when she heard the echoes of voices announcing the slow spilling of parents into the hallway, which meant they would be arriving at her classroom shortly.

"I should go," she said softly, flicking her gaze to Savannah, who was shifting her glances between Lydia and her father, wondering if she was missing some sort of joke. "The parents are coming."

"Right," Stiles nodded, clearing his throat and trying desperately to hide his flushing cheeks, unaware that Lydia was doing the same.

"I'll see you, Savannah," she said, shooting the sixteen year old a friendly smile before cautiously lifting her gaze to meet the girl's father's. "It was nice to meet to you, Stiles."

"Same here," he smiled softly, lifting a hand off his daughter's shoulder to wave goodbye.

With one last smile, she turned away, quickly shuffling back into her classroom and immediately stretching her lips into her parent friendly smile as they began to wander in.

In the hallway, Savannah pushed her palm against her father's side to guide him in the direction of her next class, and Stiles followed easily, doing his best not to glance back at the spot where Lydia had once been standing.

…

"That wasn't so bad," Stiles mumbled through a mouthful of sushi, the chopsticks he had been attempting to use cast to the side in favor of a fork. "I thought it was gonna be so much worse."

Savannah paused her eating, her spicy tuna roll gripped expertly between the wooden sticks on the way to her mouth. "I told you it would be fine. You're so dramatic."

They were sitting at the kitchen table, their dinner of sushi picked up from the supermarket on their way home from school spread out on the wooden surface before them.

Stiles rolled his eyes and swallowed his California roll. "You sound like Scott."

Giggling, Savannah popped the piece of sushi into her mouth and chewed, pleased with the comparison because she had always been envious of her Uncle Scott's wit and ability to have the perfect comeback to anything.

"Did he give you any more life advice while you two were hanging out today?" she asked after swallowing, extending her arm to pick up another piece of sushi and dunking in generously into the bowl of soy sauce on her right.

Savannah loved her uncles dearly, so she tried to keep as up to date with their lives as possible. She had many fond memories of growing up with them in the house and she missed them deeply when Isaac, the last of them to move out, officially packed up his boxes a few weeks after her eighth birthday. For a while, it had been strange not see them every day, but she eventually got used to it being just her and her dad.

Of course, her uncles were still for all of the important events in her life, such as all her dance recitals, where they sat in the front row and ignored proper etiquette as they cheered and whistled, encouraging her as she danced. Even if they no longer lived under the same roof, they were still a family and that much would never change.

Still, she knew there had been very few days since the formation of the band that Stiles hadn't had some sort of interaction with at least one of his three best friends, so Savannah made sure to ask about her father's day to learn not just about Stiles, but about her uncles as well.

"He says I should broaden my horizons," Stiles muttered, stabbing a little forcefully at his next piece of sushi. "Apparently my cereal choices are too boring for him."

"Are you sure that's what he meant?" Savannah shot her father a pointed look, knowing full well that Scott's advice was meant to be understood in an entirely different way.

She wanted as much as anyone for her father to immerse himself in the world once more. Sure, he toured the world and played concerts to stadiums full of people in cities that most people would only dream of visiting, but she often felt as though he restricted himself for her sake, because he was afraid things would change and she would somehow come to think that she no longer held that special place in his heart.

But Stiles didn't realize that Savannah would always think of him as a superhero, that she would always love him no matter what, even if he decided that his heart held enough room for one more.

Stiles mock glared at his daughter, stopping his stabbing motions. "Not you too."

Savannah had actually brought up the whole dating thing before. On multiple occasions, she had told him that she would be completely alright if he was to find someone to love. As much as she loved her father, she did want to explore the world on her own and she didn't want to her dad to be lonely when she was no longer around. She knew he'd always have his bandmates, but she also knew that there were times when he would feel utterly alone and she hated the thought of that happening.

"Dad," Savannah sighed, setting down her chopsticks and lacing her fingers together because this was a serious conversation. "You're running out of excuses as to why you won't date. I understand that it was hard when I was young because we were on the road and it's not like constantly moving around makes having any sort of relationship easy, but now…now what's stopping you?"

To be honest, he didn't really know how to answer that question, because she was right; he didn't have any reason not to put himself out there besides the simple fact that dating scared the shit out of him.

"Nothing, I guess," he frowned, knowing she wasn't going to put up with his usual reasoning that she was the only girl he needed. It was the truth and she accepted that to a point, but that response was becoming tired.

"Exactly," she nodded, her lips kinking into a slight smirk. "So if you wanted to ask someone out, then you should do it. Like a certain geometry teacher, maybe?"

Stiles's eyes widened in horror as he lifted his gaze to meet his daughter's, his words coming out in a muffled stammer due to the California roll in his mouth. "What?"

"Please," Savannah sputtered, picking up her chopsticks again. "Don't act like you weren't checking Miss Martin out in the hallway. I saw you. You were so into her."

"Savannah!" Stiles gasped, partly mortified that his attempts at flirting had been so unsubtle that his daughter had picked up on it and partly because she'd had the audacity to point it out at all.

"She's cool," Savannah shrugged, picking up a salmon roll this time. "You should go for it."

She meant those words genuinely. While Stiles was out of reach, Savannah had turned to Lydia whenever she needed advice or had something to share or needed to vent or just wanted to talk in general. She always listened intently to everything Savannah said, never interrupting and letting the girl speak her mind completely before offering her input. Lydia's advice was always as honest as possible and she never wanted to make Savannah feel as though her feelings were invalid. Savannah considered Lydia someone she trusted and even though she was no longer her teacher, she still liked to drop in and speak to her every now and again.

Stiles blinked as he tried to process what was happening. The truth was that he'd quite enjoyed the interaction he'd had with Lydia in the hallway and he wouldn't mind doing it again. And perhaps his daughter and his band mates were right; perhaps it was about time that he stopped being scared and opened himself up to the possibility of something good.

He licked his lips and hesitated before he spoke again, one worry still on his mind. "She's your teacher, though. Wouldn't that be weird?"

Chewing her food quickly, Savannah shook her head as she swallowed. "She's not my teacher anymore."

He supposed this time he really was out of excuses. She studied him as he mulled over her statement, tilting her head to the side and allowing a slow smile to stretch her lips. "So are you going to do it?"

He smirked in response. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

Rolling her eyes, Savannah laughed, knowing that his attempt at having at air of mystery was masking a yes and proceeded to change the topic of conversation to the new skills she'd mastered in her ballet class that afternoon.

Stiles smiled to himself as he listened to his daughter excitedly tell him how she'd managed to land a quadruple pirouette, her brown eyes wide with excitement. In his mind, he was trying to decide exactly what he would say to Lydia when he dropped by her classroom the following afternoon.


	7. Chapter 7

Isaac watched Stiles nearly trip over her when he stepped out of the shower. White hotel towel anchored securely at his waist, the drummer opened the door from the bathroom to let out the steam and stopped short, stumbling on his way to find some clean clothes at the sight of his eighteen month old daughter waddling around the side of the hotel room bed on a mission of exploration.

"Savannah!" Stiles gasped as he leaned down to scoop her up, one arm wrapping beneath her diaper clad bottom, the other pulling down the hem of the oversized Beacon Hills Lacrosse t-shirt Scott, a lover of all sports, had bought her, already trying to turn her into a diehard fan as well. "What are you doing in here by yourself?"

The sound of someone clearing their throat drew his attention and Stiles looked up to see Isaac lying on the double bed on the other side of the room, his laptop on his legs and a pointedly annoyed expression on his face because he didn't think he was that unnoticeable. "I'm right here, bro."

"Sorry," Stiles sighed, bouncing his daughter in his arms and finding himself unable to hold in a soft laugh as she reached up to grab his damp hair in her tiny fist. "I guess I'm just not used to her being able to walk yet."

The fact that Savannah could now go from place to place on her own was equal parts exhilarating and terrifying. It had been a heartwarming moment when, while they were sitting in their dressing room before a show, Savannah had taken her first steps, toddling away from where Stiles had been holding her upright. Her uncles had cheered and her father had cried, thinking that it was amazing that she was growing every day, but at the same time wondering if years from now, he'd blink and realize his baby girl was no longer a baby.

Despite being thrust into fatherhood unexpectedly, Isaac thought Stiles was turning out to be a pretty great parent. A little overbearing at times because he was always worrying that he was doing something wrong, but loving and caring nonetheless.

Isaac didn't really have any room to criticize, seeing as he had little to no experience with small children. Helping to raise his mate's child while touring with his band wasn't exactly how he pictured his life at nearly twenty three, so every day was an adventure, but he liked to think he was getting the hang of it. As much as it might have freaked Stiles out to see his daughter walking around without one of her uncles following closely behind, Isaac figured he'd have to learn to let go eventually.

"You need to relax, man," Isaac laughed lightly, closing his laptop and setting it to the side before crossing his legs and sitting up straight.

Parenthood had made the drummer more uptight than usual. Despite being the youngest, Stiles had always been the most sensible one in the band, most likely because, for the longest time, he wasn't of legal age to do anything wild. Being in a touring rock band when he was sixteen hadn't turned out to be as glamorous as he'd hoped. Throw in the fact that his father was on tour with him when the band first began getting successful and he didn't have much range to be young and wild and free. He'd loosened up a bit once he turned eighteen and began to tour without a parental figure, but as soon as Savannah came into his life, that switch flipped once more, only this time to the tenth degree.

Isaac supposed he couldn't blame Stiles as it wasn't as though the bassist had any idea what it was like to be someone's father. And if he'd learned anything from watching Stiles stress out over the past year, it was that he didn't plan on becoming anyone's father for a long, long time.

It wasn't as if Savannah was in any way a troublesome child. In fact, all of them found it hard to be irritated with her, even when she woke them up with her screaming in the middle of the night because she was hungry, because as soon as she calmed down, she'd smile widely and look at them with those big brown eyes and all of them would melt.

But he and Stiles were very different and although he could appreciate the way Stiles had stepped up to take care of his daughter, Isaac had come to the conclusion that he himself was far too emotionally immature to be any kind of parent.

"I know," Stiles sighed, pressing a kiss to Savannah's temple before walking over to where Isaac was sitting and lowering the toddler to the rough floral comforter.

As soon as her diaper clad bottom hit the bed, she twisted her torso and began to crawl towards her uncle, eyes wide with fascination at his messy mop of curls.

"Isa!' she called out proudly, having just recently learned to pronounce the shortened versions of all their names. Stiles had watery eyes for about six hours after she said 'dada' the first time.

Never one to mind being petted, Isaac laughed and held her small hips between his palms when she climbed onto his lap, feet on his thighs as she tugged at his hair, pulling the strands through her tiny fingers.

"Well," Stiles snorted, "It looks like you've got things under control, so I'm gonna go finish getting dressed and then we can eat and head out."

Today was fairly light for them; only a couple radio interviews at the venue and then soundcheck before their show that night.

Nodding, Isaac kept his hands securely at Savannah's hips as Stiles shuffled around the room to find his clothes, every so often lifting the toddler into the air to make her giggle and finding himself laughing as well because it was extremely difficult to be unhappy around Savannah.

Once Stiles was dressed, they fed Savannah, who snacked on her morning Cheerios and sipped apple juice from a purple plastic cup, sitting on the bed with her stuffed animals, buffered by pillows to keep her from rolling off as the boys packed their things, ensuring they weren't leaving anything behind. They were flying to LA for some writing sessions, which meant they'd be heading to the airport as soon as the show was over.

"Alright, babe," Stiles sighed, heaving his daughter against his chest once she was finished with her breakfast and the room was cleared of all personal items. "Let's rock and roll."

Because Stiles was still at the stage where he was trying to keep the general public unaware of Savannah's existence, she was passed off to a member of the security team, who carried her out to one of the shiny black SUVs that had arrived at the back door of the hotel to take them to the venue. Stiles always felt really bad about the fact that sneaking out the back meant they didn't get to interact with the fans who were waiting outside and ended up apologizing an annoying number of times, but Isaac figured Stiles was doing everything he could to protect his daughter and if their situations had been reversed, he probably would have done the same thing.

They arrived at the back entrance of the venue to see loads of fans gathered around the barriers. Fans who were too distracted at the sight of the boys to see the eighteen month old that was being carried inside. The three separate radio interviews were done in the hallway, while Savannah was tucked away in the dressing room, content with her stuffed animals and the posse of stylists around to watch over her, and that was where she stayed for soundcheck, noise cancelling headphones covering her ears as she acted out scenes between her stuffed bunny and stuffed teddy bear.

The time between soundcheck and the start of the show was always strange because the boys never knew what to do with themselves. The crew were scattered about, either resting and relaxing or making adjustments to the instruments and the stage, and the stylists knew they wouldn't really be needed until about an hour before the show, so they'd generally go out and try to get some food before they had to come back and work, which pretty much left the boys to their own devices.

"I'm bored," Scott whined, sitting with his beanie covered head leaning back against the couch and his ass hanging almost halfway off. "We should do something."

"Like what?" Stiles asked, sitting cross legged on the floor and leaning back against his palms, hawk like eyes watching Savannah, who sat across from him, eyes wide as her small hands pushed over the glossy pages of a magazine, not comprehending what was inside, but fascinated by the colors and shapes nonetheless.

"We could go say hi to the fans?" Derek suggested, knowing there were plenty outside as the lines to get into the general admission show had started forming early that morning.

Despite the fact that all the boys murmured in agreement, Isaac noticed a slight drop in Stiles's level of outward happiness and it took him a good thirty seconds of watching Stiles watch his daughter to realize why. Ever the doting parent, Stiles didn't like being away from Savannah when it wasn't necessary and seeing as no one else was currently around, he wouldn't be able to leave her to go outside and see the fans, something that made him feel extremely guilty because he felt as though he was neglecting the people that had made his dreams come true.

So Isaac decided to be a good friend. Lowering his legs from the coffee table and sitting up on the couch in his place beside Scott, he looked pointedly at Stiles. "I'll stay with Savannah. You should go outside."

"Really?" Stiles's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "Are you sure?"

It was a fair question because Isaac didn't feel nearly as confident as he sounded. The truth was that he'd never really been alone with Savannah. Sure, sometimes he'd look after her if he was sharing a room with Stiles and the drummer was taking a ridiculously long time in the shower, but Stiles was always just a scream away if Savannah started crying and he would come running and scoop her against his chest, as she was always comforted by being in her father's arms. But meeting fans meant the boys would want to take pictures with and talk to as many people as possible, which had the possibility of taking a lengthy amount of time, which meant that Isaac would truly be the only one babysitting Savannah.

Nevertheless, he was determined to do something good, so he nodded and stretched his lips into his most convincing smile as he responded. "It'll be fine. I can teach her the art of being cool cause we all know your kid would be the most likely to turn out weird."

Stiles rolled his eyes, but laughed anyway, shooting the bassist a grateful smile. "Thanks, man. I appreciate it."

Nodding, Isaac watched as the other boys pushed themselves to their feet, Stiles pecking his daughter on the top of her head as he did so, whispering that he'd be back soon and exited the dressing room, leaving Isaac alone with the toddler.

"So, Sav," Isaac said, letting out a deep exhale as she lifted her chin to look at him. "It's just you and me…what do you want to do?"

He didn't know if she actually understood him or if she was just bored as well, but she slapped her hand down flat on the magazine and smiled widely, her curly pigtails looking like little balled horns on top of her head. "Play!"

"Play?" he nodded, relieved that he actually recognized the word. Pretty much everything she said excited her father, but to Isaac, half the time, it sounded like complete gibberish. "Play what?"

His first thought was an instrument, but all the guitars were currently sitting on a rack near the side of the stage and he knew better than to mess with their tuning so close to the start of a show. Eyes scanning the room, he spotted the duffel bag full of her toys that Stiles carried around pushed himself to his feet as he made his way over to it, hoping something inside would pique the toddler's interest.

Intrigued by his movement, she pulled herself forward until she was standing and waddled behind him to the bag, standing to his side as he squatted down and unzipped it, peering at the treasures inside. He rifled past the stuffed animals, looking for something she wasn't already playing with and smiled triumphantly when he spotted a toy keyboard at the bottom of the bag. Pulling out the plastic toy, complete with multicolored keys and flashing lights, he turned to offer it to Savannah, but his smile quickly faded when his eyes were met with empty space.

"Savannah?" he called out, turning his head quickly from side to side, eyes searching every corner of the room for signs of a head full of chocolate curls. "Savannah? Where are you?"

His heart raced as he stood slowly, leaving the toy keyboard on the floor and wondering how it had been less than ten minutes and he'd already lost Stiles's daughter. As far as he could tell, she wasn't anywhere in the dressing room, so he hurried through the open doorway, thinking that they really needed to start keeping it closed and came to a skidding stop in the middle of the hallway as he turned his head in each direction, knowing it wasn't possible for her short legs to have taken her very far.

Seeing a member of the janitorial staff just down the hallway, Isaac sprinted over to the elderly man, panting slightly as he came to a stop beside him and his very large trash can.

"Excuse me, sir," Isaac gasped for air. "You haven't happened to see a little girl running around, have you?"

Logically, he knew it didn't make sense because if she had found her way into the hall, she wouldn't have made it out of his sight.

The man pulled his eyebrows together, looking like two furry white caterpillars as he shook his head. "No, I haven't seen anyone. Little girl, you say?"

"Yeah," Isaac nodded, weaving his fingers into his already messy hair. "She's like a year and a half old, so not very tall. And she just learned to walk, so she probably wasn't moving too fast."

"Sorry," the man shrugged. "I haven't seen her."

Sighing, Isaac nodded his thanks as he turned back towards the dressing room, calling out behind him, "Thanks anyway. You should probably stay close because your help might be needed in cleaning up some blood stains in the dressing room later."

The man probably thought he was joking, but Isaac was certain that if he didn't locate Savannah before the boys returned, Stiles would probably think of a million different ways to decapitate him. At least it would make good publicity, he thought as he reentered the dressing room because he hadn't really been thorough the first time. The news of the band's drummer mauling the bassist would definitely get people talking.

It felt like someone was squeezing his heart in their fist and he felt sick to his stomach as he worried. He'd lost plenty of things in his lifetime; his keys, his credit card, his wallet, his phone, but he didn't think he would ever be capable of losing an entire human being.

He stood still in the middle of the dressing room, eyes slowly scanning over every surface, not being able to see a single place where anybody, let alone a child could fit as he repeatedly called out the toddler's name. He was about five seconds away from pulling out his phone to call Stiles and accepting that he would most likely be losing a limb in the very near future when he heard a noise that caused him to freeze.

A soft giggle coming from the right side of the room drew his attention and he walked slowly towards the couch he'd been sitting on earlier, eyebrows furrowed in confusion as he wondered if she'd somehow buried herself beneath the cushions. Just to be certain, he ripped each of the leather cushions from the couch and tossed them to the floor, stopping only when he heard the giggling again.

The corners of his lips turned downwards into a frown, he curled his fingers over the top edge of the couch and peered downwards, letting out an audible sigh of relief at the sight of Savannah wedged between the back of the couch and the wall, small hands clamped over her mouth and eyes shining with excitement.

"Savannah!" he gasped, taking a step backwards and pulling the couch with him before placing his knee where the cushions used to be and reaching down to lift her into his arms. "You scared the hell out of me! Do you have any idea what your dad would have done to me? Don't do that again!"

"Mo!" she called out happily, pressing her flattened palms against his cheeks to squish them in. "Mo Isa!"

"No more," he shook his head, hating having to say no, but also knowing that his stress levels couldn't take it. The last thing he needed was to be on the verge of a heart attack in his twenties.

Apparently she thought she'd just won a game of hide and seek, but Isaac had just experienced the most frightening ten minutes of his life and he wasn't about to let go of her until her father returned, so held her snugly at his hip as he replaced the couch cushions before plopping down on the floor where her stuffed bunny had been left and keeping her corralled between his outstretched legs.

He used the stuffed animal to act out scenes from _Love Actually _until the boys returned thirty minutes later. While Scott and Derek collapsed on the couch, Stiles scooped his daughter into his arms almost immediately, getting separation anxiety from being away from her, even if it was for less than an hour.

"Did you and Uncle Isaac have fun?" Stiles asked her, rubbing his nose against hers affectionately as he set her back on her feet and squatted down to her level.

"So much fun," Isaac smiled sweetly and innocently, knowing that Savannah probably actually did have the time of her life.

"Good," Stiles grinned and Isaac could tell he was letting out a sigh of relief that it hadn't been a complete disaster. If only he knew.

"Oh, good, you found her."

A new voice entered the mix and Isaac looked up, his eyes widening in horror when he saw the janitor from earlier standing in the dressing room doorway, having noticed the small child Isaac had been looking for.

Stiles's brow furrowed in confusion, his gaze shifting between the janitor and the bassist and then to Savannah as he pulled his daughter into his arms and stood up straight. "Found?"

Isaac didn't have time to make up an excuse because it took Stiles all of three seconds to figure out what that meant and before Isaac's lips had even parted to speak, the drummer had whipped around and was glaring at him.

"Found?" Stiles seethed, his eyes flashing as he held Savannah tightly to his side. "Did you lose my daughter?"

Isaac knew better than to lie, mostly because he was absolutely horrible at it, so he winced and shot Stiles a sheepish smile as he replied. "There's a possibility that there was a small period of time where I wasn't exactly sure where she was…"

"Isaac!" Stiles scolded as Scott and Derek did a terrible job of trying not to laugh from where they were sitting on the couch.

"I know, I know," Isaac sighed, leaning back on his flattened palms, thankful that he didn't have kids of his own because apparently he still had a lot to learn about childcare. "But she's fine now. Aren't you, Savannah? Everything's all good."

Stiles parted his lips as though he was going to launch into a lecture, but before he could, Savannah clapped her hands together and yelled out, 'goo' and beamed proudly at everyone in the room as though she'd just won a Nobel Prize. Stiles's willpower crumbled and any anger he had faded at the sight of his daughter's smile, so he laughed and pressed a kiss to her cheek and shook his head as he shot Isaac one last glare.

Isaac smiled widely, knowing that despite the fact that he was nowhere near ready to be a parent, it wouldn't be the first time he would be glad Savannah was a part of his life.


	8. Chapter 8

He never thought he'd feel betrayed by a bag of gummy worms.

All he wanted was some sweet, chewy goodness to help in his creative process during that morning's songwriting session, and somehow, he'd ended up in a situation which put him completely out of his element.

He chose the drug store over the supermarket, partly because it fell on his way to Scott's house anyway and partly because he knew they didn't sell candy in such large quantities, which meant his self-control wouldn't be quite as tested. Once inside, he wound his way through the aisles to the row of candy at the back and selected enough bags of gummy worms to tide him over for the morning before picking out Scott's favorite chocolate sweets as well because Stiles had a feeling he was going to end up being late and perhaps the presence of candy would lessen the bassist's glares in the lead singer's direction.

It was while he was on his way towards the cash register that everything went wrong.

Out of habit, his eyes scanned quickly down every aisle as he walked to the front of the store, not sure what exactly he was looking for, but looking nonetheless. Most of the time, he didn't see anyone he recognized, but he liked to keep an eye out for the off chance that he ran into an old friend. They spent so much time away from home that it was always nice to coincidentally bump into someone he hadn't seen for a while.

Of course, the person he spotted this time wasn't exactly an old friend, it was Connor, Savannah's…friend that was a boy.

Stiles actually had no problem whatsoever with Connor, but that didn't mean the lead vocalist was quite ready to accept the fact that his baby girl had a boyfriend. When Savannah had first told him the news, blushing and wide eyed and excited when she sashayed through the front door after dance, he had smiled as convincingly as possible and told her that he was happy for her.

Things hadn't worked out with Toby, the first boy Savannah had ever told her father about, because he decided that he wanted to focus on his swimming in hopes of getting a scholarship to a university, a decision Savannah completely respected, so they'd ended up staying friends. Stiles would be lying if he said he hadn't been a little ecstatic that he no longer had to worry about his daughter's love life, but the relief was short lived, because about three weeks after her sixteenth birthday, she dropped the news about Connor, the boy she sat behind in history class.

Over time, he truly had grown to like Connor. The sixteen year old debate team captain had spent many an evening in the Stilinski house, having dinner with Savannah and Stiles before getting some quality couch time with the Stilinski girl, under the watchful eye of Stiles, of course, who would make it a point to walk by the room every ten minutes or so to ensure they weren't doing anything he didn't approve of.

So when Stiles saw Connor in the drug store, his first instinct was to turn the corners of his lips upwards into a smile and greet the teenager warmly, but that was until Stiles noticed exactly which aisle the boy was standing in. His eyes slowly widened in horror as he watched Connor select a box of condoms from the shelf and turn away from Stiles to go pay for them at the register.

Frozen and unsure of what to do, Stiles stood in the central aisle of the store, his lips parted in shock and his eyes bugging out until Connor successfully paid for his items and stepped outside. In his mind, Stiles had ripped the box from the boy's hands and told him firmly to get out of the store, but in reality, he had just watched it happen and now Savannah's boyfriend was on his way to do something that Stiles didn't want to think about.

The only solace he got from not reacting to the situation was that Savannah was spending the night at the house of a friend from her ballet classes, going straight there as soon as her daily lesson was completed, which was the reason Scott had invited the boys over to hang out, which would undoubtedly turn into an impromptu jam session after his kids were safely tucked away in bed.

Or, at least, that's what Stiles assumed. He hated the fact that he was questioning what his daughter was doing that night, especially seeing as one of the major foundations of their relationship was their ability to be completely honest with each other. Even the things which were hard, such as having to explain death to a six year old after she saw a lifeless pigeon lying on the side of the road, they had powered through and he genuinely believed their relationship was stronger for it.

They didn't lie to each other. That was the number one rule.

So he decided that he'd trust that when his daughter said she was sleeping over at her friend Aubrey's that's truly what she was doing.

Still, he bought his snacks and drove the rest of the way to Scott's in a daze and by the time he had parked his car on the street and stepped through the bassist's perpetually open front door, he hadn't figured out how to properly handle the situation. The boys were in the basement when he arrived, Scott and Isaac leaning forwards with furrowed brows and pursed lips, intensely drawn into the newest Call of Duty game as Derek sat back on the couch beside them, not particularly interested and extremely glad when Stiles entered the room.

"Hey, man!" the guitarist greeted him brightly, patting the little room on the leather sofa beside him, indicating Stiles should take a seat. "I'm so glad you're finally here. The boys are completely ignoring me."

"We're not ignoring you," Isaac called out, though his eyes never left the television screen, "We're just a little busy."

"It's alright," Stiles shrugged, dropping the plastic bag full of candy on the table before plopping down beside one of his best friends and stretching out his legs. "I need to talk to you anyway."

Derek's eyebrows lifted in surprise, his eyes lighting with interest as he stayed silent, but nodded for Stiles to continue.

Despite the fact that Stiles was the first of them to have kids, he still went to Derek for a lot of his parenting advice. The lead guitarist was the oldest and quite possibly the most rational and more often than not, he could explain things in a way which made perfect sense, a skill Stiles did not possess.

"I saw Connor at the shop on my way here," Stiles began slowly, almost cringing as the next words came out. "And he was buying condoms."

That piqued the interest of the other boys. Scott paused the game and lifted one eyebrow as he turned his head to face Stiles. "Savannah and Connor are having sex?"

Of course, Stiles had told his friends about Savannah's new boyfriend as soon as he'd found out the news himself and as would become tradition when it came to the boys in Savannah's life, they had spent the better part of an hour cyber stalking him before coming to the conclusion that he genuinely was a good kid.

"I don't know," Stiles shrugged as Isaac and Scott put down their controllers, giving the lead singer their full attention. "That's not a conversation Savannah and I have ever had."

Derek crinkled his nose as he spoke, knowing Stiles didn't necessarily want to hear this particular set of advice. "Maybe that's a conversation you should have."

"Or, you know, you could go tell Connor to keep it in his pants," Isaac offered.

Rolling his eyes, Derek shot the bassist a glare that made Scott snicker into the closed fist he was holding at his lips. "If they want to have sex, they're going to do so whether or not Stiles gives them permission."

"Ok, so what do I do?" Stiles asked, genuinely at a loss. "Don't you think it's a little bit soon? I mean, I just don't want her to do anything that she's going to end up regretting."

"For all you know, that ship has already sailed," Scott piped up, which earned him equally fiery glares from the drummer and lead guitarist.

Despite his unappreciative look in the lead singer's direction, Stiles knew that there was a horrifying possibility that Scott was right. It was entirely possible that the reason Connor was buying condoms was not for the purpose of anticipation, but because he was restocking his supply.

"Do you actively try to be unhelpful or does it just come naturally to you?" Derek turned his head to ask the lead singer.

Scott smiled sweetly in response and Derek returned his gaze to Stiles, sighing before he spoke. "Look, she's sixteen and she has a boyfriend. It's completely natural for her to be curious about sex. All you can do is talk to her and make sure that she's going into it with her eyes open."

"At least you don't have to worry that she's not being safe, though," Isaac added.

Stiles didn't even bother glaring this time.

…

He was early picking Savannah up from her sleepover. Normally, he would have slept in late and given her some extra time to eat breakfast with her friends, but today he was antsy and he knew they needed to talk. Despite the fact that he was extremely relieved that she really had been spending the night at Aubrey's, the conversation that lay ahead of them wasn't one that he was particularly keen to begin.

She came bounding out of the house, twirling around to wave goodbye to her friends as she skipped towards the car, smiling widely as she pulled open the door and slid into the passenger seat.

"Hey, sweetie," he smiled softly, because even in the most awkward of situations, she made him incredibly happy. "Did you have fun?"

Nodding, she leaned over and kissed his cheek briefly before settling back into her leather chair so that he could begin the journey home. "It was great! Can we get some pancakes on the way home, though? I'm starving."

He obliged with her request and as they sat in the pancake house and he watched her practically inhale her short stack topped with strawberries and whipped cream, he decided that in public probably wasn't the best place to have this conversation. So he just listened to her talk about her friends and how she was so lucky to have people like them in her lives and how she was pretty sure she was close to landing a quadruple pirouette and how that night, Connor was taking her to see some new funny movie that had just hit theaters. The mention of her boyfriend's name drew Stiles's attention and he was a tad more attentive in hopes that she might reveal something in her normal conversation, but he didn't prod.

Besides, Stiles still had yet to figure out exactly what he wanted to say, so he stayed relatively quiet the entire ride home. It wasn't until he'd parked his car in the garage and had stepped into the house that he felt as though he had no control over the filter between his brain and his mouth.

Savannah had shot him a smile, stating that she was going to go take a shower and had just climbed the bottom step of the wooden staircase when the words just spilled out.

"Are you and Connor having sex?"

This wasn't at all how he had wanted it to happen. He had hoped to either bring it up casually, perhaps later that day, when they were stretched out on the couch watching scary movies before she went to get ready for her date, or maybe even engage her in conversation in such a way that she brought it up herself.

But instead, he was standing at the bottom of the staircase, his car keys pressed firmly into his palm as watched her turn to face him in slow, mortified silence.

"What?" she whispered, her brown eyes wide, but her expression otherwise conveying absolutely nothing.

He knew there was no turning back now, so he might as well just put everything on the table and hope and pray their relationship didn't end up irrevocably scarred. Licking his dry lips, he loosened his grip on his keys. "I saw Connor buying condoms at the store."

If possible, her eyes widened even further and her lips parted as her fingers nervously curled around the strap of the canvas tote bag she used for overnight trips. "Oh."

Her decided lack of response didn't foster any sort of confidence and he squeezed his eyes he winced, not wanting to jump to any conclusions, but know that the remainder of their conversation was most likely not going to result in Savannah telling him she was saving herself for marriage.

"Come on," he sighed when he forced his eyes open again, nodding towards the lounge room. "We should probably talk."

Nodding slowly, she stepped back onto the ground floor and dropped her bag by the bottom stair before walking past him into the designated room, her gaze focused anywhere but her father as she sat gingerly on the edge of the couch and quietly slid the silver ring she was wearing on and off her thumb.

"Shit," he mumbled under his breath as he paced in front of her, pausing to drop his car keys on the coffee table before shoving his fingers into the pockets of his jeans. He had no idea where to start, but he figured the beginning was always a good choice. "We never really had the whole birds and the bees talk, did we?"

If he was being honest with himself, this was mostly due to the fact that he had been avoiding doing so. Her class had been shown a video when she was eleven where the differences between boys bodies and girls bodies had been explained to them, and he'd expected her to come home and ask the natural follow up questions. He'd even made a list of everything he'd say when she did, but the questions never came, so he let it ago and assumed that when she was ready to talk about it, she would.

"I know how sex works, Dad," she sighed, weaving her fingers through the bottom of her messy curls, looking wild and mussed since she'd just slept on them. "We had to take a class."

His eyebrows shot up in surprise as he paused his pacing. "They teach you that in school?"

"Not like the graphic stuff," she shrugged, shifting uncomfortably on the couch. "Just the body parts and what goes where and what actually has to happen in order for you to get pregnant."

"Oh," Stiles replied, desperately wishing he'd kept that list from when she was eleven. "Ok, so we don't need to have that talk, but we do need to talk about you and Connor."

Deep down, he knew that no matter what he said, at the end of the day, it was still her decision. As Derek had said, whether or not he was comfortable with it, if she wanted to have sex with her boyfriend, she was going to and he couldn't do a thing to stop her.

"Do we?" Savannah wrinkled her nose in disgust. "I'd rather not."

He'd rather not either, but he knew he needed to step up and be the parental figure in this situation. "Yes. We do."

"Dad," she lifted her chin to look him more directly in the eyes. "I'm a teenager and we've been dating for six months. Sex was going to come into the picture eventually."

"I know," he groaned, lifting a hand to weave his fingers through his hair and tug in frustration. He hated not being in control and he'd never felt more out of his element in his life. "But I just always hoped that it wouldn't happen until you were like thirty. Or I could just remain blissfully ignorant."

In retrospect, that was a pretty naïve approach. Still, he wouldn't have minded just never having any indication that his daughter had any semblance of a sex life.

"If it makes you feel any better," she said quietly, her lanky frame sinking into the leather couch. "We haven't done anything yet."

That only made him feel better until he realized she'd used the word 'yet', as in there were plans to do it in the future.

"But you're considering it?" he asked. He liked that their whole policy on total honesty meant that she felt comfortable enough to admit things like that to him.

Nodding slowly, she twisted the ring around her thumb and looked up at him from beneath furrowed eyebrows, gauging his reaction as she spoke. "Yes. I told him I was ready, which is why he was buying the condoms."

Stiles let out the breath he hadn't been aware he was holding, doing his best to let it relax his muscles as he turned to sit on the couch beside her, lacing his fingers between his parted knees and staring at the skin poking out from the hole in his dark jeans as he formulated his thoughts.

Because Stiles had come into parenthood with no preparation whatsoever and his daughter had no female figure with whom she could turn to, she had been left to figure out a lot of things on her own. Stiles felt guilty that he wasn't always able to offer her the support that she needed, but he had tried to be there for anyway, staying up all night to listen to her talk about her first school formal and how she might just have gotten the hang of slow dancing and how her date had kissed her goodnight on the front step. He had even helped choose the outfit and gave his opinions on her makeup and hair choices for her first date with Connor.

He had always tried to be as supportive as possible, even though sometimes it broke his heart to see his baby girl growing up, and he knew that this time was no different.

"Sweetie," he said, twisting his torso and untangling his fingers so he could reach out and grab one of her hands. "You're nearly an adult and you're so responsible and I know that you're completely capable of making your own decisions. And it's your life, so I'm not going to tell you what you can and can't do. But I do want to know that you're doing this for the right reasons, that you actually are ready."

She tilted her head to the side, her brow furrow deepening. "What do you mean?"

He chewed on his lip ring thoughtfully as he contemplated the best way to respond. "Look, sex is great and people have sex for lots of different reasons and when I say 'right reasons' I mean that I want it to be right for you. I don't want you to think of it as something you _have_ to do. It doesn't matter how long you've been together. There's no schedule for these things. Sometimes people do it on the first date, sometimes it takes a few years and that's all ok, as long as you're doing it because it's what you want and not because it's what you think you're supposed to be doing."

Her expression was blank at first, but eventually, she turned the corners of her lips upwards into a small smile. Wiggling her hand from his, she threw her arms around his neck and pulled him into a tight embrace, turning her head to kiss him softly on the cheek and whisper in his ear. "I love you, Dad."

He grinned as he held her close, thinking he was silly to have been so worried in the first place. "Love you more, sweetheart."

She was smiling shyly when she pulled away, chewing on her lower lip as she pushed herself off the couch and gestured towards the staircase. "I'm gonna go call Connor and tell him we should save those condoms for a little bit."

He was so relieved that he didn't bother dwelling on the fact that she'd planned on sleeping with her boyfriend on their date that very evening. Smiling, he stopped her from leaving the room when another infuriating thought came to mind. "Hey, he hasn't been pressuring you or anything, right?"

"No," she shook her head immediately. "He said he wouldn't mind, but we don't have to do anything I don't want to do."

"Good man," Stiles nodded. He thought Connor was a good kid and was fairly certain the boy was beyond respectful, but it was always nice to have confirmation. "Cause, you know, if he gives you any trouble…"

Savannah rolled her eyes, but laughed nonetheless, the dimples she'd inherited from her father popping in her cheeks. "Don't worry, Dad. He's fully aware that if he messes with me, he's going to have to deal with all four members of True Alpha."

Stiles couldn't hold back his wide grin as she lifted her hand in a wave and left the room to go call her boyfriend, glad to know that he could always rely on his three best friends to be his own personal support system.


	9. Chapter 9

There was smoke everywhere.

Scott coughed as he waved a towel in the air, trying to clear the fog, but having no luck. Not wanting the smoke detector to go off, he quickly switched off the griddle and proceeded to wave away the remainder of the fog until only a thin mist of smoke remained. Blinking to readjust his eyes, he sighed in frustration as looked down at the pancakes he had been attempting to make for breakfast. They were now burned to a delicate crisp.

Shaking his head, he picked up the griddle and tossed the black disks into the trash and placed the pan in the sink. Apparently some things never changed. Having to be a parental figure to Stiles's daughter for the past four years hadn't made his cooking skills much better.

The sounds of his distress had made it to the basement and a few moments later, Isaac and Derek came skidding into the kitchen from where they'd been working out guitar riffs for a new song.

"What the hell happened?" Isaac asked, brows furrowed in concern as he surveyed the kitchen, a thin mist still surrounding the stove area.

"I was trying to cook," Scott shrugged, hoping they would see it as an act of kindness rather than an epic failure.

Derek snorted, his lips stretching into a wide grin. "Haven't you learned by now that us plus cooking is always a bad idea?"

Scott rolled his eyes and shrugged. "I was just trying to do something special. It's a big day, you know?"

Isaac parted his lips to agree, but was kept from doing so at the sound of Savannah's small pattering footsteps running down the stairs and into the kitchen.

"Uncle Scott! Uncle Scott!," she cried out as she toddled into the room as fast as her little four year old legs could carry her, brunette curly ponytail flying outwards. She stopped at Isaac's side, turning in a slow circle as she directed her question at whichever one of her uncles would answer. "Is the house on fire?"

Derek laughed as he scooped her into his arms and smothered her cheek with kisses, thinking she must have smelled smoke and assumed the worst. "No, Sav. Nothing's on fire. Uncle Scott just burned some of the breakfast food."

"So there's no danger?" she asked, her brown eyes wide because she didn't quite believe him.

"Nope," he said seriously, shaking his head, his hand rubbing slowly up and down her back to calm her nerves, a technique they all had learned worked well in these types of situations.

Not that crises were frequent occurrences in the True Alpha household. At least, not anymore. When Savannah was a bit younger, they considered every time she cried to be a crisis. But now that they'd somewhat got the hang of the whole parental figure thing, they'd learned to remain calm whenever possible.

"Then why is daddy crying?"

Derek and Isaac both snorted with laughter, but Scott pursed his lips and furrowed his brow at the strange question before smiling softly and stepping forward to reassure Savannah that everything was alright. He had a hunch as to why Stiles was particularly emotional this morning.

"Alright, sweetie," Scott sighed, reaching out to pull Savannah from Derek's arms and turning to set her atop the kitchen counter, his two band mates coming to stand at his side, curious as to how the conversation was going to progress because they themselves weren't quite sure why Stiles was currently upstairs, wiping away tears as he fixed his hair in the bathroom mirror. "I'm gonna let you in on a little secret, alright?"

Savannah nodded, pursing her lips in focus, her brown eyes fixated on her uncle.

Scott's lips turned upwards as he continued. Savannah really was too adorable for her own good and it was making having a serious conversation difficult. "Sometimes daddies have a hard time letting go."

Realization dawned on Derek and Isaac as they recalled what day it was, silently nodding in approval.

"What's that mean?" she asked, tilting her head to the side, her ponytail swinging as she laced her fingers atop her rainbow polka dot dress.

Scott chewed on his bottom lip for a moment, deciding how best to proceed. "Well, you know how you used to be a baby?"

She nodded and grinned, brown eyes lighting with excitement. "But I'm not anymore!"

"Nope," Scott smiled, blinking back tears as he thought back to the night Stiles had first brought Savannah into their hotel room and the four of them had stood around wondering what the hell they should do. Four years later and none of them could even imagine a life where she wasn't waking them up in the morning by jumping on their drowsy frames or singing loudly and happily outside their bedroom doors. "You're a big girl now."

The triumphant grin which crossed her face made all their hearts sing. Laughing, Scott continued. "The point is that your daddy and still remembers you when you were a baby, we all do, because it doesn't seem like that long ago. We're happy that you're growing up, but we're also sad because we can't believe it's happening so fast. Does that make sense?"

It really was incredible how quickly time had flown. They'd all watched her grow from a baby who spit up over their favorite articles of clothing to a little girl who could do almost everything besides reach the Cheerios on the top shelf by herself. Soon enough, she wouldn't need them at all and that thought was absolutely heartbreaking.

She thought for a moment before nodding slowly. "Yep."

"Alright," Scott grinned, raising his hand for a high five. Savannah gladly obliged, giggling as their palms collided. "Will you do me a favor then, Sav? Will you go and give your daddy a big hug? He's really going to miss you today."

"Ok," she smiled, nodding enthusiastically.

Chuckling, Scott helped her off the counter and shook his head, the boys all laughing as they watched her zoom out of the kitchen and back up the stairs to Stiles's bedroom.

Everything he'd said to Savannah had been utterly true. It seemed as though life had been on fast forward for the past couple years. He could have sworn that just yesterday he was still relearning the intricacies of a diaper – not quite recalling everything from what he'd learned when he'd help his mother in the pediatric wing of the hospital – and today the little girl they'd all come to love as though she was their own would be going to school for the very first time.

It made sense for Savannah to go to a regular school. Once she hit three, Stiles had asked the boys if the band could take longer breaks between albums and tours. It was a decision they all fully supported, partly because they were getting exhausted from the hectic schedule and partly because it meant they got to spend longer periods of time at home.

Having just gotten home from their latest world tour, the boys were taking a much needed break from the music industry. The band wouldn't even begin work on the next album for about six months and even then, the six months following would be spent in the studio, which meant no traveling.

Thus, Stiles decided to enroll Savannah in the local pre-school. Traveling with them while she was young was fine, but she would need stability as she grew, and school was a good place to start.

Sighing, Scott took out bowls and grabbed a box of cereal from the pantry, deciding that there was no way he could mess up this particular breakfast. As he set the bowls filled with cereal on the table, Isaac and Derek busied themselves with filling glasses with milk and making a pot of coffee. They were going about their usual morning duties, but stopped at the sound of Savannah's light giggling ringing out throughout the house.

The sound brought an instant smile to their faces and Scott burst out laughing when Savannah scrambled into the room, followed by Stiles who was chasing her with a large towel covering his face, making him look more goofy than terrifying, apparently attempting to hide his sadness at his baby girl going to school for the first time by making sure she spent the entire morning smiling.

"Savannah," Stiles called out, his arms and legs stiff as he walked and lowered the tone of his voice to sound as creepy as possible. "Savannah, where are you?"

Pressing her lips together, Savannah's eyes lit with delight as she scurried to hide behind Scott's legs, her head poking out to the side to gauge her father's distance as Stiles zombie walked towards his band mate. Scott did his best to keep quiet, clamping his palm over his mouth as Isaac and Derek did the same as to not ruin the game. The towel was still obstructing Stiles's view, but he seemed to have no problem with directionality and made his way towards them fairly easily, although at a rather slow pace.

"Come here, Savi," Stiles called out once more, his tone deep and drawn out.

Scott was able to hold in his laughter until Stiles was just in front of him, at which point he proceeded to double over and hold his stomach in laughter as Stiles waved blindly to his front. Finally giving up, the drummer whipped the towel from his face to reveal his disheveled hair and bright eyes, grinning at everyone widely.

"Morning," he beamed, his gaze sweeping his friends before landing on his daughter, which caused his expression to soften. Squatting down, he coaxed Savannah out from behind Scott's legs with a slow spreading smile, placing his hands on either side of her waist once she was standing in front of him. "Morning, Savi. How are you?"

Giggling, Savannah leaned forward and kissed him quickly in morning greeting, the image of him sniffling as he got dressed earlier cleared from her mind. "Morning, Daddy. You look very pretty."

Pretty was her go to complimentary word, so Stiles accepted it with a grateful kiss in return before standing up straight and walking around her to help the boys get breakfast ready. Isaac scooped Savannah up from behind, sending her into a fit of giggles as he set her down in her chair at the end of the table and kissed the top of her head. Derek placed her bowl full of Cheerios and plastic glass full of milk in front of her and the other boys brought their own breakfasts to the table, slipping into chairs on either side of her as they began to eat.

As the five of them scooped spoons full of cereal into their mouths, Savannah chattered on happily about the new puppy her friend Bennett from across the street just got for his birthday.

As Scott watched Stiles's sweet, innocent daughter excitedly tell her story, he had a sudden vision of the future. Stiles and Savannah would be sitting in exactly the same position, but instead of a puppy, she would be talking about a boy. A boy that she'd met at school that she really liked and she wasn't sure what to do because she'd never felt that way before.

The thought caused tears to well in his eyes, because although he knew Savannah would have to grow up someday, it still caused his heart to ache to think of her as an adult and he held in a sigh as he glanced over at Stiles, who sent him a knowing look, probably already internally sobbing at the thought of his daughter's wedding day in the far distant future.

It wasn't until halfway through her next story that Stiles realized the time. Eyes widening when he glanced at his phone, he cursed under his breath and sent knowing glances at the other boys.

"Come on, Sav," Stiles cried out, picking up his daughter's now empty bowl and mug, "We're gonna be late."

While Isaac put away the dishes, Derek the food, and Scott cleaned the kitchen in general, Stiles prepared Savannah for the day ahead by running around the house to find her pink plastic backpack and the shiny new Mary Janes he'd bought her the week before and five minutes later, the five of them were piling into the car.

They knew it wasn't necessary for all of them to drop her off at school, but this was a big day, and even though Savannah was technically only Stiles's flesh and blood, the rest of the boys felt as though they were watching their own child reach a major life milestone.

"Are you nervous, sweetie?" Stiles asked as he strapped Savannah into her car seat, double checking to make sure it was secure. "It's perfectly fine if you are."

Scott glanced over to his niece from his place in the driver's seat to see Derek and Isaac sliding into the back beside Savannah. Turning slightly in his chair, Scott reached down to make sure the backpack was stored neatly between Isaac's legs. If she was nervous, she didn't show it, instead shrugging nonchalantly.

"Not really," she said, swinging her legs and bouncing lightly in her seat.

Pressing his lips together, Stiles held in laugh as he tugged on the seatbelt once more to make sure it was securely fastened before shutting the door and climbing into the passenger seat. For the entire ten minute car ride to school, Savannah seemed utterly like her normal self: cheery and upbeat and funny. Even as they parked the car and removed her from her seat, she was in the midst of telling them a joke she'd heard from her Uncle Derek a few days before. A joke Derek himself had told them many times, but they didn't mind hearing a few hundred more if it made Savannah smile.

They laughed as she delivered the punchline before Stiles squatted down in front of her once they were all safely out of the car, the other three leaning against the side mildly dusty blue Jeep just behind him.

"Alright, baby," Stiles whispered, his voice cracking slightly. Scott reached down and squeezed his friend's shoulder reassuringly, though he was having trouble holding back tears himself. "This is it."

Savannah nodded, straightening the straps of her little bag on her shoulders and smiling widely at her father before tilting her chin up to give her uncles the same smile. "Alright, then, bye."

They stared at her for a moment, blinking in disbelief that it was that easy for her to let go, but returned the smile nonetheless. Stiles kissed her on both cheeks and she stepped forward to hug each of her uncle's legs before turning running towards the front door of the preschool. Sighing, Stiles stood up straight and joined his friends against the side of the car, crossing his arms over his chest and staring after his daughter. They all stood in nostalgic silence, watching Savannah walk towards her first day of school, wondering how it was that their little girl had grown up so fast.

Despite the fact that Scott didn't yet have kids of his own, he did feel like a father to Savannah. He'd always had a paternal sense about him, he supposed, seeing as he'd always looked out for his friends as well. Apparently it never got easier to watch the people he loved grow up.

About halfway up the walkway, Savannah stopped on her path and turned to face them. Scott furrowed his brow in confusion as she ran back towards them, waving her small hands to signal they should come down to her level.

Stiles crouched once more, and the rest of them followed suit, forming a semi-circle around her as they waited for an explanation. Savannah looked at her father, her eyes wide. "Daddy?"

"Yes, sweetie," Stiles whispered, his heart breaking at the fear in his daughter's eyes. "What is it?"

"Will you be here when I get out?" she asked earnestly, her gaze drifting around the circle to indicate she intended the question to be directed at her uncles as well.

"Of course, baby," Stiles soothed, reaching out and stroking the back of her head beneath her high ponytail lightly.

Although her father's reassurance seemed to calm her some, she still turned her attention to Scott.

"You too, Uncle Scott?"

Scott let out a soft laugh and nodded. "Yes, Sav. We'll all be here. All four of us."

Even though he hadn't checked with Derek and Isaac before making such a statement, Scott knew they were in agreement. None of them could imagine being anywhere else on such an important day.

Savannah nodded in response, taking a deep breath before throwing her arms around her father's neck. Stiles held her close, memorizing the feel of her small body against his and kissing her cheek lightly as he pulled away.

"Love you, baby," He tapped her cheek, smiling.

She grinned widely, shifting her gaze between all of them. "I love you, too. All of you."

Taking turns, Isaac, Derek, Scott squeezed her tightly and kissed her cheek, each wishing her luck on her first day of school.

Stiles pressed one last kiss to the top of Savannah's head before the girl turned on her heel and ran up the path again, this time actually making it to the door, where she turned to send them a final wave before entering the school.

Stiles sighed as he stood, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans and rocking back and forth on the toes of his black Converse. "I can't believe she's this big."

"Me neither," Scott replied, pressing his car keys into his palm, Derek and Isaac nodding in agreement. "You know what I was thinking this morning, though?"

"What?" Stiles asked, cocking his head to the side, his eyes squinting as he looked at his friend in the bright sunlight.

"We've made a lot of mistakes."

It was a blanket statement that referred to all of the boys and Scott didn't need to see their smirks and hear their soft chuckles to know they agreed. None of them had ever really been angels to begin with, but combining the fact that they were young and living a life most people could only dream of meant that they often made decisions they regretted later on. As a general rule, Scott tried to take lessons from all those bad decisions so he didn't necessarily have to think of them as regrets, but that didn't mean there weren't times when he knew something he did was flat out wrong.

And when it came to parenting, none of them really knew what to do, so they kind of played it by ear and hoped they didn't end up scarring Savannah for life. Despite Isaac once losing her in a venue and Derek accidentally teaching her inappropriate language at far too young an age, she seemed to be doing alright. So far, Scott thought they'd done a pretty decent job and he was especially proud of the amazing father Stiles had turned out to be.

Stiles laughed, dimples popping as he smiled and bit down on his lip ring. "Too many to count."

"We've all been young and reckless and stupid," Scott continued, earning nods from the lead guitarist and bassist, "but somehow Savannah turned out to be the world's greatest kid."

Stiles's lips stretched into a slow smile as he beamed at his best friends. He thought his daughter was perfect anyway, but it was always nice to hear that others agreed. "She did, didn't she?"

Scott nodded, his smile growing. "We must have done something right."

No one argued with Scott's use of plural language, because they all knew that raising Savannah had always been a collective effort. Even when she was a fully grown adult, Stiles would never take sole credit for her amazing character. She was a product of all of them as she grew, she'd maintain aspects of all of their personalities without realizing it because children generally learned their behaviors from their parents and in Savannah's case, she had four parents from which to learn.

"Maybe one day we'll figure out what that something is," Derek laughed, breaking the seriousness of the moment.

Isaac snorted, shaking his head before fixing his gaze on Stiles. "Come on, Stiles. I'll buy you some ice cream on the way home."

"Ice cream?" Stiles's eyes lit excitedly, making him look about ten years old. "This early in the morning?"

Scott laughed, loosening his grip on his keys in his palm as he walked around the side of the car, thinking the guitarist's suggestion was actually perfect. "Why not? We're celebrating."

"Celebrating what?" Derek asked as he pulled open the side door and began to climb inside.

Scott smiled to himself as he fastened his seatbelt and stuck the key in the ignition, grinning at Stiles in the passenger seat. "Doing something right."


	10. Chapter 10

The smell of bacon and slightly burnt toast was surprisingly relaxing first thing in the morning. Perhaps it was because eating a proper breakfast in the dining room of a hotel wasn't something they had the chance to do very often. Up until recently, Stiles had tried to keep Savannah from the public eye, so they'd usually just order room service before sneaking out of the back of the hotel. Either that, or their mornings required a bit of hustle on their parts, so they didn't have the time to enjoy a proper sit down breakfast.

But they had today off and they were planning on making the most of it. Seeing as they were in Miami and Savannah had never seen the ocean before, they wanted to take her to the beach, but first, a hearty breakfast was in order.

Savannah stood between Stiles and Derek as the elevator doors slid open to reveal the lobby, at three years old, coming up to below their hips. She reached up to grab her father's hand on one side and her uncle's on the other, and the boys wrapped their fingers around her tiny palms as they hoisted her upwards and swung her outwards into the lobby, causing her to giggle and ask for more.

Stiles had always been a sucker for his daughter's laugh and Derek was a softie when it came to children in general, so they did as requested and swung her all the way to the hotel's dining room, Isaac and Scott following close behind and laughing at the sight.

Mornings like these were Stiles's favorite. Of course, he treasured every moment he got to spend with his daughter, but the ones where they weren't rushed and just got to enjoy being together were the best.

Savannah stood on her tip toes as they reached the start of the buffet line, tilting her chin upwards in an effort to see the piles of food laid out in heated trays.

"Daddy," she stomped her foot as she looked up at Stiles and jutted out her bottom lip. "I can't see."

Chuckling, Derek let go of her hand, knowing it was Stiles's turn to gladly take over the parenting.

"Alright, squirt," Stiles sighed as he placed his hands at his daughter's waist and lifted her to his chest, where her small legs immediately locked at his hips, her pint sized ballet flats digging into the waist band of his royal blue board shorts and her arms around his shoulder. "What do you wanna eat?"

Her eyes were wide as she surveyed the options because, generally speaking, she didn't have so much to choose from. More often than not, they were in a hurry, which meant her breakfast consisted of dry Cheerios that she picked out of a plastic snack bag or if he was in a mood where he didn't mind cleaning up her sticky messes, butter on toast. So the fact that she now had the ability to choose from rows upon rows of options was awe inspiring.

"That!" she replied firmly, pointing randomly at one of the trays of food. Stiles followed the path of her small finger to the steaming scrambled eggs and reached for a plate from the pile sitting at the front of the table to give her what she wanted.

He piled her plate high with the various foods she pointed at, choosing them based on shape or color or because they just smelled good and not because she had any idea what they were. Once they reached the end of the line, Stiles was holding his daughter with arm and a plate full of French toast, eggs, bacon, muffins, and assorted fruits in the other.

"Think you got enough food, Savi?" Derek laughed from his place behind them in the buffet line.

"I'm hungry!" she announced proudly, puffing out her chest as she grinned at her uncle.

"Good," Derek nodded as he scooped scrambled eggs onto his already overloaded plate.

Stiles laughed lightly, looking to the other side of the buffet line to see that Scott was loading up two plates, one for himself and one that looked as though it had all of Stiles's preferred breakfast food on it. Shooting his best friend a grateful smile, Stiles shifted his arm to hike his daughter up higher on his hip before turning to carry her to the table where Isaac was already munching down on a strip of bacon.

Placing the plate on the table top, he used his now free arm to lift Savannah from beneath the elbows and set her down in the chair next to Isaac. He grabbed a few napkins from the pile Isaac had already set on the table, knowing Savannah had a penchant for making a mess while she ate, and began arranging them precisely: one in her lap, one on the table beside her plate, and one tucked into the neckline of the floral sundress she was wearing over her red polka dotted swimsuit.

His eyes scanned the table to see if he was missing anything as Scott and Derek came to join them, the drummer placing Stiles's plate at the head of the table beside Savannah, knowing the food would get cold because the drummer would be too busy making sure his daughter ate to do the same for himself.

"Drink," Stiles snapped his fingers, speaking more to himself than to anyone in particular. Settling his gaze on his three year old, he smiled softly. "Honey, you want something to drink? Milk or water or juice?"

Pursing her lips outward, she thought very carefully for a moment before responding. "Apple juice!"

"Alright," Stiles grinned, "Coming right up."

Turning on his heel, he wove his way through the tables in the hotel's dining room towards the beverage bar behind the buffet, humming to himself as he filled a small glass with apple juice for Savannah and a cup with coffee for himself. His fingers turned tightly around the receptacles as he carefully made his way back to the table, only to have his eyes widen in horror at the sight of his daughter crawling on her hands and knees from one end to the other.

"Savannah!" he gasped, setting the cups down on the table as quickly as he could without causing them to spill over and reaching out to grip her waist, pulling her into the air and against his chest, giggling as she looked up at him, her brown eyes wide and innocent. His lips parted to reprimand her, but the combination of her adorable smile and the fact that all of the boys were snickering over their breakfast plates caused him to close his mouth and sigh. Scrunching his nose, he rubbed it against hers before walking around the table to set her back into the chair next to Isaac and pushing the glass half filled with apple juice next to her plate.

Ignoring his own food despite the fact that his stomach was growling at the bacon and eggs on his plate and watching his band mates shovel forkfuls of potatoes into their mouths wasn't helping, he picked up the fork next to Savannah's plate and stabbed a piece of cantaloupe, holding it out as an offering in front of her lips.

"Wanna try?" he asked as she tilted her head to the side and inspected the light orange fruit.

Parting her lips, she sat up on her knees and braced her small hands against the edge of the table as she leaned forward and closed her mouth around the piece of fruit, chewing thoughtfully before scrunching her nose in disgust and shaking her head. "Yuck!"

"Not a fan?" he laughed. "Alright, why don't you pick what you wanna eat next."

She surveyed her plate carefully, eyes drifting over the eggs and bacon and muffins before taking another look at the fruit pile and pointing at a cut up strawberry. "That one."

She'd had the sweet red fruit before, but she probably didn't remember and was just choosing it because she liked the pretty color. Poking the slice with the fork, Stiles held it to her lips and watched as she nibbled on an edge, her lips stretching into a smile as she decided she liked it before gobbling down the rest.

Stiles fed her the rest of the fruit and was about to move onto the eggs, which probably needed to be reheated, when Savannah spoke in a weak voice.

"Daddy, I no feel so good."

The statement caused all of them to freeze and Stiles hurriedly set down the coffee cup that he'd been sipping out of as he held forkfuls of food in front of Savannah's lips to reach out a hand and feel her forehead and cheeks, frowning in the process. "You're not warm. Does something hurt?"

She bobbed her head up and down, her curly pigtails doing the same. "It itchy."

Furrowing his brow in confusion, he ran his thumbs lightly over her cheeks and turned her head from side to side, his eyes slowly widening in horror as he realized her lips had swelled to at least twice their normal size.

"Hospital," he sputtered out, his frightened gaze shifting to his friends, who had already abandoned their meals and were quickly rising from their seats. "We need to go to a hospital. Now."

The boys followed orders silently and he lifted Savannah from her chair and held her close to his chest as Scott dug out his phone to call someone with a shiny black SUV to pick them up. He kept his lips pretty much pressed to the top of her head the entire time he was walking out the back door of the hotel and holding her cradled in his arms in the car, hoping that perhaps his love and affection would take away whatever pain she was feeling.

And he could tell she was feeling pain because she was so quiet. Savannah's talkatively was how he judged her mood. Under the best of circumstances, she would be chattering nonstop, which why Stiles knew that something was really wrong, because she was utterly silent.

Wrapping his arms around her tiny frame, he heard her breathing become labored as though her throat were closing up and he wished with all his heart that he could breathe for her, but settled for kissing the top of her head repeatedly until their car came to a stop outside the emergency room.

He clutched her to his chest as he hurried inside, running up to nearest nurse, sitting behind a large reception desk, his tone urgent and pleading. "Ma'am, please I need help. I don't know what's wrong with my daughter. Her lips are swollen and I think she's having trouble breathing."

Savannah's labored breathing accompanied by the barely audible whine of, "Daddyyy," that she managed to push past her lips confirmed his words and the nurse nodded, standing from behind the desk and gesturing to a nearby exam room.

"Just in there," the nurse directed the harried father, "A doctor will see you shortly."

Stiles began to talk towards the room the nurse had mentioned and the other boys followed, filing into the small room which was filled with a few medical devices on poles, a bed covered with thin white paper, and nothing more than a plastic curtain to shut them off from the outside world. They squeezed themselves around the bed, Stiles sitting Savannah atop the crinkly paper, his hand coming up once again to feel her face and finding her body temperature was still normal. Her lips, however, where swollen and red and she kept reaching up to scratch her throat.

"How you doing, baby?" Stiles asked softly, leaning in to press a kiss to her forehead. "You doing alright?"

"Itchy," she repeated, the only word besides 'daddy' that she'd been able to communicate over the past twenty minutes.

He sighed, having no idea what that meant, but was distracted when the nurse pulled back the plastic blue curtain and shoved a clipboard full of paper near his face. Scott reached out to grab it before Stiles could react and the nurse didn't bother arguing with how much Savannah's uncles knew about her, not knowing that if she had, she would have lost.

Stiles had felt extremely guilty about missing the first six months of Savannah's life, so as a result, he had spent one of his few days off ensuring he found out as much as he could. In the process, he'd drilled all of her information – birthday, medical history, etc – into each of his band mates' brains as well. If needed, they could convincingly pass as being related, just from their knowledge, which was fitting, seeing as he considered them family anyway.

Shooting the drummer a tight lipped, grateful smile, Stiles turned his attention back to his daughter, whose breathing was becoming shallower by the minute, wishing there was something, anything he could do, and finally settling for just rubbing his palm up and down her back soothingly as he and Derek softly harmonized to a familiar song to keep her calm.

"Hey, man," Isaac said, resting a hand on Stiles's shoulder and squeezing gently as he raised his pierced eyebrow. "Are you alright?"

It was a question no one had asked him yet and if he was being completely honest he wasn't entirely sure how to answer because the only thoughts that popped into his mind sounded extremely harsh. Such as, 'I'm probably the worst father ever' or 'this is gonna be all over the news in a couple hours'.

The latter was something he had scolded himself for thinking at all. But the reality was that all of his actions in public were well documented and although a hospital wasn't a place where paparazzi would expect them to be, if they stuck around long enough, it was only a matter of time before someone snapped a picture of them and posted it online. His daughter was already in enough distress and he didn't want a sea of people with cameras waiting for them outside the emergency room.

"I don't know," Stiles shrugged, sighing as he continued his slow rubbing of Savannah's back. "I feel like I should have been able to prevent this somehow. Like I should have seen the signs or something."

"How could you have known?" Scott asked, not looking up from where he was inking Savannah's date of birth onto a medical form. "You don't even know what's wrong."

"I guess we'll find out soon enough," Stiles muttered as the curtain was pulled open again and a middle aged woman stepped through, her white coat indicating she was the doctor for whom they were waiting.

"Hello," she smiled warmly, her eyes surveying the men in the room before settling on Savannah, "I'm Dr. Jenkins, and you must be Savannah. It's nice to meet you."

Because her father had taught her to always be polite, Savannah smiled weakly in response, earning her a grin from the doctor, who pulled a small flashlight from the pocket of her white coat. "Can you open wide for me sweetie?"

Savannah did as she was asked and the doctor went about doing various tests to figure out what was wrong, including feeling the sides of Savannah's neck and peering at the back of her throat. It took about five minutes, all of which the members of the band spent holding their breath, and when she was finished, the doctor shot them all a reassuring smile as she spoke, stepping towards the curtain to wrap a hand around the plastic edge. "It looks like she just had an allergic reaction."

"Allergies?" Stiles's eyebrows rose in surprise because he had expecting something life threatening. "To what?"

The doctor stuck her head outside of the curtain, speaking quickly to a nurse before stepping back into the exam room to respond to Stiles's question. "What did she eat for breakfast this morning?"

Stiles proceeded to list off everything he remembered piling on Savannah's plate that morning, his rant being cut off after he said strawberries.

"That could be it," Dr. Jenkins said, smiling at the nurse when she reappeared holding a small cup of liquid and taking into her hands. "Strawberries are a very common food allergy."

Furrowing his brow in confusion, all of the boys watched as the doctor gently asked Savannah to part her lips and then tipped the liquid into her mouth, laughing when the three year old contorted her features in disgust after swallowing and let out a horrified, "Yuck!"

"That was Benadryl," the doctor explained before any of them could ask. "Any antihistamine will work in this situation. If she ever has another allergic reaction, just give her the recommended dosage and she should be good to go. It doesn't look like her allergy is severe enough to cause her body to go into shock."

"I don't understand, though," Derek piped, much like the others, recalling a few previous times when Savannah had eaten strawberries, whether at breakfast or as a snack. "She's had them before and this has never happened."

"You don't usually have a reaction the first time you try something," Dr. Jenkins smiled. "It's the subsequent exposure that causes the allergy."

"Thanks, Doc," Stiles smiled gratefully, glad that the entire situation had turned out to not be as a big deal as he originally thought. Sure, he still hated the fact that he had to bring his daughter to an emergency room at all and seeing her labored breathing had all but ripped his heart from his chest, but he could already tell she was getting better, the color returning to her cheeks and that light he loved so much coming back into her eyes.

He knew he had a tendency to overreact when it came to Savannah – one time even calling his Scott's mother from his Chicago hotel room when his then two year old daughter had gotten a cold, because he was seeking the best remedies to stop her sniffles – but he figured it was better to be overly concerned than to not be concerned at all. He would forever feel bad about not being there for Savannah's birth, and although he often admitted to his three best friends that he had absolutely no idea what he was doing, he truly was trying his hardest to be the best father possible, the kind of father that someone as wonderful as Savannah deserved.

The doctor bade them goodbye and Stiles held Savannah against his side, his arm acting as a chair for her to sit on as Scott left the necessary paperwork with the nurse and they headed back outside. Stiles's heart swelled at the sight of the vivacity in Savannah's wide brown eyes and her lips slowly but surely stretching into that smile that acted as a daily reminder that anything was possible.

As they stepped outside to meet the shiny black SUV that Isaac had called while they were walking, relieved to find no media personnel waiting for them because they hadn't been around long enough, Stiles made a mental note to keep Savannah away from anything that could possibly have strawberries, even if that meant cleansing their entire house back home, because he didn't want to ever find out whether her allergies could turn into something more serious.


	11. Chapter 11

They were about an hour into their recording session when he got the call.

It worried him a bit, the fact that his phone was buzzing when a large percentage of the people who normally called him were currently sitting in the same room. Derek was recording his lead guitar parts and Scott was playing around on his acoustic guitar and Isaac was taking a nap on the couch to Stiles's left. Lydia was at school and wasn't in the habit of calling him when she knew he was recording and Savannah was much too busy with her own work during the day.

Stiles was in midst of coming up with rhythmic beats to accompany the melody Scott was making up when he felt his phone vibrate in the pocket of his jeans. It took him a good ten seconds to dig it out and when he was finally holding it in his hand, he decided that it was probably time to transition into wearing looser pants.

His eyebrows lifted in surprise at the name flashing across the screen.

Casey.

Sliding his finger across the screen, he brought the phone to his ear, his brow pulling into a confused furrow. "Hello?"

"Hey, Stiles. Mr. Stilinski. Stiles."

Stiles pressed his lips together and tried not to laugh at the ramblings of Savannah's boyfriend of three years. It wasn't often that people found the drummer intimidating because being the youngest in both his band and an only child often meant he wasn't taken seriously, so he relished in the thought that Savannah's boyfriend was nervous to speak to him. Still, Stiles felt bad about making Casey uncomfortable because the boy was so easily flustered.

"Hey, Casey," Stiles smiled into the phone, the mention of Savannah's boyfriend causing Scott to look up in surprise and Isaac's eyes to flutter open. "What's up?"

Casey answered the question with another question. "Savannah said that you guys were gonna be in the studio all day. Are all of you still there?"

"Yes…," Stiles purses his lips, the confusion in his voice causing Isaac to sit up and adjust the green knit beanie pulled over his thick sandy curls. "Why? What's going on?"

There was a moment of silence as though Casey was contemplating how to best phrase his next words. He spoke slowly once he finally got up the nerve to do so. "I was wondering if I could stop by, if you guys aren't too busy."

Once again, Stiles's eyebrows lifted in surprise and he glanced at Scott and Isaac, who were leaning forward, hoping they might be able to hear the conversation before looking up to see Derek finishing up his recording. "Things are pretty relaxed over here. Come on over."

"Great," Casey replied, letting out a soft sigh of relief. "I should be there in the next hour."

"Sounds good," Stiles nodded, shrugging at the questioning glances he was receiving from his bandmates. "See you then."

"What was that about?" Scott asked as Stiles hung up the phone and shoved it back into the pocket of his jeans. "Why is Casey calling you?"

Of course the rest of the boys had all met Casey. Savannah considered her uncles to be pseudo fathers, so once she and Casey began to date seriously, the seven of them, including Lydia, had all gotten together for dinner so that the boys could meet Casey properly. It had gone surprisingly well. Casey had been a bit nervous about meeting the most important people in Savannah's life and as expected, the boys did their best to be intimidating, but at the end of it all, they'd realized that Casey genuinely loved Savannah with all his heart and there wasn't really anything more they could ask for.

Savannah and Casey met in a mandatory ethics class in their senior year in college where Savannah was studying business in hopes it would help her achieve her dream of one day opening her own ballet studio and Casey was studying political science and history, wanting to go to law school. Casey was shy and sweet, with a passion for photography and absolutely no athletic abilities whatsoever. He confessed to Stiles while they were bonding whilst playing pool at a pub a few months after he and Savannah became exclusive that he had been instantly drawn to the way her eyes were always lit with joy because she was constantly so enthusiastic about everything she talked about and it had taken him three months to finally get up the nerve to ask her out while they were studying for their midterms.

Despite Stiles's pleading that Lydia stay for dinner that night to break the assumed tension the first time Savannah brought Casey home, Lydia had been completely ready to make herself scarce for the night, thinking it was a crucial night for Savannah and her father and uncles. But Savannah had showed up in her classroom the night of the dinner in question and insisted Lydia be there because Lydia was part of her family now as well and Savannah valued her opinion and although Lydia had never gotten the sense that Savannah thought Lydia was trying to steal Stiles's attention from his precious daughter, it was nice to know that Savannah considered Lydia to be such an asset to her life.

All of them had liked Casey right off the bat and although he and Savannah had their ups and downs over the past three years, they loved each other heaps and they were solid as a rock and Stiles had grown to accept that his baby girl wasn't a baby anymore.

"Yeah, what did Casey want?" Isaac repeated the guitarist's question, leaning forward off the couch and lacing his fingers together between his parted knees.

Stiles shrugged, reaching out to pick up the drumsticks lying on the floor to his right. "I'm not sure. He says he wants to talk to us. All of us."

"What does that mean?" Derek asked, having caught the tail end of conversation upon exiting the recording booth and obtained enough information to piece together that they were speaking about Savannah's boyfriend.

Stiles shrugged again, beating the sticks against his denim covered thighs, though his mind was racing with possibilities. The last time all of them had been gathered together because someone wanted to talk, Savannah had told them that she and Casey were moving in together. At the time, Stiles had just recently gotten used to Savannah no longer being around the house because she was living on campus, so the thought of her living with her boyfriend was hard to wrap his head around. Eventually, he learned to accept it because it wasn't as though it was really up for discussion. Seeing his daughter grow into this amazing woman was bittersweet and his heart ached at the thought of the day when he would have to let her go entirely.

He could tell his bandmates were having similar thoughts by the sudden tense silence in the room, which dissipated quickly when the door to the studio opened and Lydia walked in.

Always glad to see her, Stiles's lips immediately stretched into a smile as he set down his drumsticks and pushed himself from the couch, though he was still slightly confused by her presence. It was the middle of the day, which meant Lydia should have been at school, teaching.

"Hey, babe," he greeted, leaning in to kiss her quickly on the lips as Lydia shot a friendly smile at the rest of the boys, his hand automatically coming to rest at her waist. "What are you doing here?"

It was her turn to be confused because Lydia had assumed he knew she was coming. "Casey called me this morning on my way to work and told me to come here during my lunch break."

Lydia figured Stiles had gotten Casey to call on his behalf and had some sort of surprise for her, which was why, when it turned out Stiles had no idea why she was there, things became particularly intriguing.

"Huh," Stiles said, dropping his hand to grab hers and pull Lydia down onto the couch next to him. "He just called me and said he wanted to stop by and made sure all of us were here. I wonder what's going on."

If Lydia were being completely honest, she had an inkling of what was about to occur and she wondered if she should tell Stiles so he could mentally and emotionally prepare, but before Lydia could part her lips and speak, the studio door opened once more and this time, Casey entered.

"Hey, man," Derek greeted, the first to step forward and shake Casey's hand because he was the only one currently standing. He shoved the pic he'd been holding into the back pockets of his jeans and squeezed Casey's palm firmly before pulling him in for a quick hug. "Good to see you."

Casey repeated this process with Scott and Isaac and hugged Lydia tightly and kissed her cheek before turning his attention to Stiles.

"Hey," Casey smiled nervously, sticking out his hand to his girlfriend's father. "Thanks for letting me come by."

"Of course," Stiles grinned and accepted the handshake, genuinely happy to see Casey because he honestly couldn't dream up a better boyfriend for his daughter. "Is everything alright?"

Casey nodded, shoving his hands into the pockets of the black trousers. He was required to wear a suit while he interned at one of the most prestigious law firms in the city. "Yeah, there's just something that I wanted to talk to all of you about. Do you mind if we sit? It'll make me less nervous."

None of them were entirely sure what Casey was nervous about, but they silently agreed, the five of them squishing together on the leather couch as Casey plopped down on the edge of the coffee table to the front, taking deep breaths as he laced his fingers together on top of his knee before deciding that he had too much energy to sit and pushing himself to his feet and beginning to pace.

"So I had this whole speech that I practiced a million times and it was completely perfected this morning, but now I can't remember how it goes or even my name."

"Casey!" Scott laughed, causing the boy, well man actually, to pause his pacing. "Just breathe, man. Tell us what's going on."

Taking the lead vocalist's advice, Casey nodded and inhaled deeply, his gaze floating across the five of them as he chewed on his bottom lip thoughtfully before speaking slowly. "The reason I wanted to talk to you all is because I want to ask Savannah to marry me and I know you guys are the people she loves most in the world and I wanted to get your blessing first."

…

His nightly video chat with his daughter was going to be awkward for a couple weeks.

They had gotten into the habit the first time the band left to go on tour and Savannah had to stay home because of school. It was the first time Stiles and Savannah had ever been apart for more than twenty four hours and neither of them were entirely sure how to deal with it, so they settled for video chatting before bed. This didn't always work because depending on which time zone the band was in, their schedules wouldn't necessarily mesh, but they kept the tradition going when Savannah left for college as well and since the time she was six years old, Stiles had never gone a day without speaking to his daughter in some form or another.

Lydia had moved in with Stiles about six months after Savannah left for school, but she had developed a ritual of speaking to Savannah for about five minutes just to catch up before leaving Savannah to talk to her father, knowing that she considered her time with Stiles to be precious and that if she ever needed Lydia, she wouldn't hesitate to call.

Despite the eventful day, Lydia knew tonight was no different, so after hearing all about how the dance classes Savannah taught as she saved up money to open her own studio had gone that day, Lydia blew her a kiss and waved goodbye and turned the laptop over to Stiles, kissing him on the cheek before leaving the bedroom to go watch some television elsewhere.

"So things are going well, huh?" Stiles asked, settling back into the pillows leaning up against the headboard.

"Yeah," Savannah grinned, her dark curls swept away from her face and twisted into their perpetual bun atop her head as she lay on her stomach on her bed and talked to her father through the computer screen. "The kids are amazing. Some of them are already so talented and I can't wait to see how much they grow."

"You were like that too, you know," Stiles smiled softly, becoming nostalgic as he remembered Savannah's first ballet recital and how the look she had on her face while she danced exactly reflected how he felt while performing.

"Are you getting sappy on me, Dad?" Savannah laughed, crinkling her nose teasingly.

"Getting?" Stiles shot back, his lips stretching into an even wider smile. "You know I'm way past already there."

"True," she squeezed her eyes closed as she smiled. "So how was your day? Was the recording session good?"

He paused, not wanting to give too much away. "It was interesting. Very productive."

It was an unusually vague answer and Savannah would normally have called him out for acting strange, but before she could, he changed the subject. "How's Casey?"

Savannah's eyes immediately lit at the mention of her boyfriend, though she hesitated before she responded. "He's good."

"You don't sound convinced," Stiles furrowed his brow in concern, hoping something hadn't happened between Casey leaving the studio and arriving home.

"No, he's good," Savannah assured her father. "He's just been acting strange all evening."

"How so?"

Savannah shrugged, reaching up to smooth away some flyaway curls with one palm. "I don't really know how to explain it. It's almost like he's a little bit too upbeat. Like he's covering something up. I don't know, I'm probably just reading too much into it. Maybe he got a case at his internship that made him upset and he can't talk about or something."

"Yeah, maybe that's it," Stiles replied, feeling knots of discomfort tightening in his stomach because he hated keeping secrets from his daughter. "Hey, Sav, are you happy?"

Savannah's eyebrows lifted in surprise at the out of the blue question as she propped herself up on her elbows and rested her cheeks in her palms. "What do you mean?"

"Just in general," Stiles shrugged. "With life and Casey and me and work. Are you happy?"

She contemplated the question for a moment before her lips slowly stretched into a smile, her gaze clouding over slightly as she nodded. "Yeah. It's weird. I have all these friends who are freaking out because they're in their twenties and they have no idea what they're doing and I have no idea what I'm doing either, but I'm not really scared about it. I'm surrounded by so many people I love and I'm still striving towards my dreams and I couldn't really ask for anything else. So yeah. I'm happy."

"I'm glad," Stiles sighed in relief, knowing he'd made the right decision in giving Casey his blessing.

There hadn't really been that much doubt that he should say yes. Of course, Savannah would always be his baby girl, but if he had to pick someone for her to marry, Casey couldn't be a more perfect choice. They loved each other to pieces and were so completely happy and that's all Stiles could ever want for his daughter: someone who made her happy.

And the fact that Casey had asked for the blessing of the rest of the band as well was just impressive. Savannah's uncles meant the world to her and although they all had children of their own now, Savannah would always be the first love of all of their lives and the fact that Casey respected that enough to consider them essential parts of Savannah's family said loads about the kind of person he was.

Stiles had liked that about Casey from the beginning, that he had never questioned the presence of Derek, Scott, and Isaac in Savannah's life. He had never asked about Savannah's mother or critiqued the fact that Savannah had been raised by four men and Stiles figured that level of respect and adoration and compassion was something that he could get used to in a future son in law.

"Hey, Dad, I better go," Savannah said, pushing herself upwards and backwards so she was sitting on her heels. "I think Casey could use an early night. I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

"Of course," Stiles nodded, raising one hand in a wave. "Say hi to Casey for me."

"Will do," Savannah grinned. "Love you, Daddy. Sweet dreams."

"Love you, too," Stiles whispered before the screen went dark, wondering where all the time had gone.

…

He was so nervous you would think he was the one about to propose. Though, if he was being honest, it was a thought that had crossed his mind more than once over the past six months. Things between him and Lydia were good, excellent even, and he had been nervous about asking Lydia to move in, but it had turned out to be a fantastic decision and now he couldn't really imagine life without her.

While Savannah was growing up, being in a romantic relationship had been the last thing on his mind, partly because he didn't want to subject someone to his crazy tour schedule and partly because he didn't want his daughter to think that she wasn't the most important girl in his life. But once Savannah had confirmed that she was all for him dating and he had met Lydia, it was like everything just sort of fell into place. He never really had to make room for Lydia in his life because it felt like Lydia was always meant to be there.

So as Lydia and Stiles and the boys sat around an outdoor table on the patio of a restaurant that was walking distance from the park where Casey was in the midst of proposing to Savannah, Stiles couldn't help but think that at some point in the near future, he wouldn't mind getting down on one knee as well.

"Everything alright?" Lydia asked, nudging Stiles's shoulder with hers from her seat to his right. "You look tense."

It was understandable. Just several hundred feet away, his daughter was getting engaged.

"Yeah," he nodded, exhaling deeply before leaning over to kiss her cheek. "I just can't believe this is actually happening."

"I wish it would happen faster," Scott grumbled from across the table, crossing his arms over his chest and pouting.

Derek rolled his eyes and Stiles and Isaac laughed, none of them admitting they wished the time would go by quicker as well.

Instead, the time seemed to crawl. And when Stiles finally spotted Savannah and Casey crossing the street hand in hand, looking giddy beyond belief, he felt like he had been holding his breath for three hours.

"There they are," he smiled softly, letting out a sigh of relief, causing the boys across the table to turn and look.

Savannah was smiling as wide as her lips would go and her eyes lit up with delight when she spotted her extended family, dropping Casey's hand to hurry over and start the rounds of hugging.

She squealed as she entered the patio, showing off her ring and singing out her thank yous as Lydia and her uncles congratulated her and her new fiancé.

Stiles moved a bit slowly, watching from just a little ways back at the way his beloved daughter's cheeks flushed and her eyes were flooded with love and happiness as she hugged all of the important people in her life repeatedly before finally setting her gaze on the one who mattered the most.

Stepping around Lydia and the boys, who stayed in her places to question Casey about the details of the proposal, Savannah came to a stop in front of her father, twisting the new piece of jewelry on her ring finger and chewing on her bottom lip, but was unable to keep from smiling.

"Hi, Daddy," she said softly, her lips stretching into a wide grin.

"Hey, sweetheart," Stiles whispered back, doing his best not to burst into tears by chewing on his bottom lip.

"I'm getting married," Savannah breathed out, glancing down at the ring as though she couldn't quite believe it herself.

"I know," Stiles said, his voice coming out cracked and watery and a little breathy. "Congratulations."

Laughing lightly, she stepped forward and threw her arms around her father, hugging him tightly and burying her face in the crook of his neck. Stiles tightened his arms around his daughter, holding her as close as possible, knowing that once he let go, he would have to come to terms with the fact that his baby girl was all grown up.

"Don't worry, Dad," she whispered into his shoulder, repeating the words he'd say to her when he bid her goodbye during their video chats and phone calls while he was away on tour. "You'll always be my number one."

Stiles laughed as he turned his head to kiss her temple, pressing his lips hard against her hair, holding her as close as possible, and knowing that on his side, those words would always be true.


End file.
